I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. t 



t <me// J5 

f ^ 

J UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.} 



DEMONSTRATION 

OF THE 

NECESSITY OF ABOLISHING 

A CONSTRAINED 

CLERICAL CELIBACY; 

EXHIBITING 

THE EVILS OF THAT INSTITUTION, 

AND 

THE REMEDY. 
BY THE RIGHT REV. DIOGO ANTONIO FELTO', 

SENATOR AND EX-REGENT OF THE EMPIRE OF BRAZIL, 
BISHOP ELECT OF MARIANNA, ETC.* ETC. 

TRANSLATED FROM THE PORTUGUESE, 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND APPENDIX, 

By Rev. D. P. KIDDER, A.M. 



Debet unusquisque, non pro eo, quod semel ebiberat, et tenebat, 
pertinaciter congredi ; sed siquid melius, et, utilius extiterit libenter 
amplecti. Non enim vincimur, quando offeruntur nobis meliora, 
sed instmimur.— Cypr. in Ep. ad Quint. 



PHILADELPHIA : 
SORIN AND BALL. 

1844. 



^° 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, 

By SORIN & BALL, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, 

for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



T. K. & P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS, PHILA. 



INTRODUCTION. 



A history of Roman Catholicism in Brazil, 
would embrace many topics of peculiar interest. 
That form of Christianity was introduced contem- 
poraneously with the first settlement of the coun- 
try. Its propagation was one of the leading objects 
avowed by Portugal in her efforts to conquer and 
colonize that extensive portion of the world. 

The devotion of the Portuguese colonists to the 
interests of the faith in which they had been nur- 
tured, probably more than patriotism or any other 
principle, inspired their persevering and eventu- 
ally successful resistance to the Huguenot French 
and the heretical Dutch, who repeatedly invaded 
the country. 

"Within the territories of Brazil, the Jesuits com- 
menced the most splendid, and perhaps the most 
commendable missionary enterprise known in their 
history. Here, too, they first encountered that pow- 
erful and determined opposition which finally se- 
cured the downfall of their order. 

Save the tribunal of the Inquisition, there is 
scarcely any institution of the Romish Church 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

which has not there been established — established 
too, it is boasted, with nearly all the purity exhibit- 
ed in Italy, and even in Rome herself. These insti- 
tutions, moreover, have long been in practical opera- 
tion, free from the remotest opposing influence, and 
have doubtless produced their legitimate effects. 

In the revolution which separated the colony 
from the mother country, and established Brazil as 
an independent empire, Roman Catholicism was 
retained as the religion of the state. Nevertheless, 
Brazilians did not surrender the right to think and 
act for themselves. Whenever, in their view, the 
general good has required it, which has been very 
often, they have closed the door to convents, and 
appropriated monastic edifices to the public uses 
of the country. 

The Pope, on a certain occasion, refused to 
consecrate one of their bishops. A proposal was 
promptly made to separate themselves from the 
See of Rome, and establish the Brazilian church 
on an independent footing. After refusing for sev- 
eral years to submit to any unjust or arbitrary claims 
of his holiness, the question was only settled by 
the resignation of the bishop referred to. 

Soon after the organization of the present form 
of government, a bold and philanthropic effort was 
made in the General Assembly or Parliament of the 
Empire, to abolish clerical celibacy, that distin- 



INTRODUCTION. 

guishing feature of Roman Church discipline, and 
thus close up a prolific source of moral corruption. 
The time, however, had not come for the success 
of the measure, although it was supported by many 
of the first men of the nation, and was loudly called 
for by facts notorious to all. To embody the chief 
particulars relating to this attempt at ecclesiastical 
reform, is the design of the present publication. 

One of the principal defenders of the project was 
Feijo, the author of the accompanying demonstra- 
tion ; himself a priest, then a member of the Cham- 
ber of Deputies, subsequently Regent of the Em- 
pire, and afterward a Senator for life. This trea- 
tise produced a powerful impression on the public 
mind, and together with other discussions of the 
subject, convinced a large proportion of the more 
intelligent Brazilians, both clergy and laity, of the 
correctness of the views here advocated. 

Such a circumstance is sufficient of itself to 
inveg; this work with a peculiar interest. But it 
possesses intrinsic merits which render it valuable, 
independent of the particular occasion which called 
it forth. 

For such a work to have been lost to the world 

and to future generations, would have been a great 

calamity. Yet such had well nigh been its fate. 

This translation is made from the only copy we 

recollect to have seen during a residence of from 
1* 



t> INTRODUCTION. 

two to three years in Brazil, and is believed to be 
the first published in any language. Only a lim- 
ited edition of the original work was ever issued. 
This being in part suppressed by its enemies, in 
part devoured by its friends, and between both 
kept hidden from the world for sixteen years, it 
can scarcely be regarded as less than a peculiar 
providence by which the book should now make 
its appearance in a form, and spread its pages so 
widely, that it can never again be concealed. 

We are neither insensible of the great privilege 
we enjoy of paying a just tribute of respect to the 
talents of the first Regent of Brazil, nor of the high 
gratification which Brazilians must experience in 
view of the admiration which this production of 
their distinguished fellow-countryman is destined 
to challenge from the learned of North America 
and of Europe. But it is with still greater pleas- 
ure that we contemplate the services which the 
labors of that worthy man may yet render Jo the 
cause of truth. His "Demonstration of the neces- 
sity of abolishing a constrained clerical celibacy" 
will be sought for by various classes of men, and 
will probably be found capable of administering to 
each a word in season. 

The Roman Catholic will here find a frank and 
fearless discussion of an important branch of his 
church polity substantiated at every step by vene- 



rated names and acknowledged authorities. The 
argument itself is accompanied by all the authority 
due to a bishop nominated to the extensive diocese 
of Marianna. 

The Protestant will here discover an independ- 
ence of thought, and a liberality of views, that he 
was perhaps little prepared to expect from a Roman 
Catholic bishop. The theologian is here furnished 
with a sound argument, an extensive series of 
references to ancient authors in point, and also to 
facts, the validity of which, in this controversy, can 
no longer be questioned ; and at the same time, with 
a complete historical compendium of the subject in 
discussion. The curious reader, moreover, will not 
fail to be interested in the style of argumentation, in 
the opinions advanced upon a variety of questions 
in ecclesiastical history, and especially in some facts 
respecting the widely extended Empire of Brazil, 
that are incidentally interwoven and illustrated. 

Especially at this crisis, when active inquiry is 
aroused upon this and other kindred topics ; when 
some are endeavoring to clothe the assumptions of 
the present day in the ghostly traditions of the past, 
and others are eager to rend the antiquated vail, 
and reduce every assumption to its proper merits ; 
it will be fitting for all to peruse the testimony of 
one perfectly at home among the Fathers, and at 
the same time qualified to speak from experience 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

upon the question lie discusses. While some are 
gravely contemplating the propriety of a return to 
clerical celibacy, and its counterpart, auricular 
confession ; it may be well for them and others to 
pursue a candid inquiry into the origin and appli- 
cations of the former institution in past ages. 

Indeed it can not be amiss for any to listen to 
the voice of lamentation spontaneously raised on 
account of the wide-spread and almost irrepressible 
evils arising from the immoralities of men at whose 
hands we are told we must receive absolution, or 
be excluded from the kingdom of heaven ; nor to 
be admonished by the fate of those who have been 
reduced to the extremity of sueing for the restora- 
tion of those natural rights, of which a spiritual des- 
potism has deprived them, and of pleading for the 
intervention of the civil authority as the only hope 
of securing ecclesiastical reform. 

The translator has simply to add, that he has 
endeavored to present to the English reader a 
faithful version of Bishop Feijo's work ; preferring, 
in several instances, to preserve a formal and anti- 
quated phrase, rather than take any liberties with 
the literal signification. 

New York, June, 1844. 



DEDICATION. 



TO THE HONORABLE, 
THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NATION. 

Gentlemen : — 

To whom rather than to you, friends of my coun- 
try, protectors of public liberty, and zealous defend- 
ers of the rights of Brazilian citizens, ought I to 
dedicate this brief essay; the offspring of my re- 
spect to justice, of my veneration to religion, and 
of my love to humanity ? 

Charged with defending us from oppression, it 
belongs to you to set us free from the chains which 
unenlightened ages have fastened upon us. Eleva- 
ted above prejudices that have grown hoary under 
the shade of a religion whose basis is sweetness 
and charity, you have the courage necessary to 
rebuke those rare, but conceited and miserably 
contemptible geniuses, who rejoice and delight in 
hearing the groans of imprudent or seduced vic- 
tims, who, pursuing the phantom of an ephemeral 
perfection, have plunged themselves into the abyss 
of crime and of disgrace. 

Armed with the authority delegated to you by 
the Constitution, you have the power necessary to 
combat those turbulent, spirits, the enemies of all 



10 DEDICATION. 

reform, who, incapable of proposing a single meas- 
ure for improvement, are nevertheless eternally 
censuring others, who neither stand in need of 
their impotent counsels, nor in fear of the devout 
sarcasms of their pretended piety. 

August and most worthy Representatives of the 
Nation ; prudence is the only lamp which should 
guide the steps of the Legislator. That conde- 
scension, however, which has not for its basis this 
offspring of enlightened experience, is a weak- 
ness — is a crime. 

All Brazil knows the necessity of abolishing a 
law that never was, is not, and never will be ob- 
served. All Brazil is witness of the evils which 
the immorality of the transgressors of that law en- 
tails upon society. Without probity, there is no 
execution of law ; without the execution of law, 
there is no justice ; without justice, there is no 
civil liberty ; and without civil liberty, there is an 
end to public happiness. 

Legislators ; deign to accept the efforts of one 
of your number ; reflect upon the important truths 
which he offers to your contemplation, and be un- 
willing to bear the mighty responsibility which 
will rest upon you if you retard the revocation of 
a law which is the source of public immorality. 
DIOGO ANTONIO FEIJO'. 

Rio de Janeiro, July 9, 1828. 



PREFACE. 



A discussion in the Chamber of Deputies 
called forth from one of its members, well known 
for his learning and his probity, the assertion, 
" That the clergy of Brazil was dishonored by the 
law constraining their celibacy." 

Afterward, when reflecting upon the means of 
reforming the clergy, and examining the annals 
of Christendom, I myself became also convinced 
that the most fruitful source of the various evils 
which are entailed upon this important class of 
citizens, was a forced celibacy. I consulted Cath- 
olic authors, and authors not Catholic, philosophers 
and canonists, and the solidity of the reasons of 
those who censured the law, equally with the in- 
sufficiency of the arguments adduced to sustain it, 
confirmed me in my opinion. 

I therefore judged it my duty as a man, as a 
Christian, and as a Deputy, to offer to the House 
my report on this subject, in which I undertook 
to substantiate as fully as the necessary brevity 
of such a report would permit, this proposition : 
" That celibacy, not being prescribed to priests by 
the divine law, nor even by apostolic institution, and 
being moreover cause of the immorality of the same, 



12 PREFACE. 

it belonged to the General Assembly to revoke the 
law requiring it. That this resolution should be 
communicated to the Pope, in order that he might 
place the laws of the church in harmony with those 
of the empire, by revoking such as impose penalties 
on the priest who marries-, and in case he should not 
do so icithin a specified time, that the beneplacito* 
should be suspended to those laws which, fomenting 
discord between members of a family, might disturb 
the public tranquillity " 

I foresaw the necessary shock which these 
propositions would give to the minds of those who, 
fallen asleep in the opinions inherited from their 
ancestors, refuse farther investigation. Moreover, 
all know the blind obstinacy of those who, at a 
certain age, can not consent to be admonished of 
their errors ; but, withal, the defenders of celibacy 
appeared in much fewer numbers than I expected. 

The pious detraction of which they made use in 
the absence of reason ; the confusion and the dis- 
order of their long harangues ; the uncharitable 
manner which they employed in ostentation of 
their zeal to defend religion, which they thought 
was attacked ; whereas it was vindicated from the 
false accusations of the incredulous, a proper dis- 

* The Constitution of Brazil, Art. 102, Sec. 14, guaranties 
to the government the right of conceding or denying its bene- 
placito (sanction) to the decrees of councils, the bulls of the 
Pope, and all other ecclesiastical constitutions.— Trans. 



PREFACE. 13 

tinction being made between it and what is only 
accidental to it; their defence of the honor of the 
ecclesiastical state, which they pretended was im- 
pugned by those who, on the contrary, endeavored 
to raise it from the disesteem into which it has 
fallen ; all co-operated toward the triumph of truth. 
A few still remain, who, either through ignorance, 
mistake, or prejudice, strive with their own con- 
science. The innate sentiments of justice are, and 
eternally will be, in contradiction to their opinions. 
Let not such suppose this to be a rebellion of the 
flesh against the spirit : it is the voice of nature, 
which speaks against the prejudices of education : 
it is the cry of conscience against perverted rea- 
son : it is the contest of truth against error. 

A wish to repay the interest which the Chamber 
of Deputies took in the simple reading of that re- 
port, and the kind reception which an impartial 
public has given it, together with my own convic- 
tion of the necessity of abolishing clerical celibacy, 
has induced me to give a more full exposition of 
the sentiments therein expressed. I shall, how- 
ever, follow the same method as before, it being 
in my view the most appropriate and convincing ; 
since, if it can be shown that this subject is not 
within the cognizance of civil jurisdiction, the 
project is defeated at once, and vice versa. In 
the former case, nothing remains for us but to 
2 



14 PREFACE. 

suffer the oppression of the law in silence, until 
Jesus Christ shall become mindful of his Church ; 
because her visible head does not draw back from 
a step once taken, and the See of Rome, although 
it does not hesitate a moment in granting dispen- 
sations to ecclesiastical law, yet it never suffers 
those laws to be revoked. The latter is not for 
its interest. 

I shall not hesitate to repeat the same arguments 7 
and to cite the same authorities as before. The 
former are solid : the latter convincing. I shall, 
however, add new proofs. I do not wish to arro- 
gate to myself the honor of originality. So much 
has been written on this subject, and with so much 
depth, that it will be sufficient for me to exercise 
judgment in choice, and clearness in arrangement. 
What, however, I shall surrender to no one r is the 
honor of desiring most sincerely the happiness of 
my country, the re-establishment of the honor and 
dignity of the clergy, and the salvation of the many 
souls who are inevitably lost through the ex- 
istence of a law from which there is, as I shall 
prove, not one good result. 

I find myself obliged to come down to the level 
of those who profess this false principle, " That 
philosophers are libertines, and heretics never speak 
the truth" I shall confine myself, therefore, to 
the citation of known authors, and those approved 



PREFACE. 15 

by my opponents, or at least respected by the or- 
thodox. I shall establish myself on facts proved, 
and on examples under the eyes of all. 

I do not write for the truly learned, nor for those 
well-intentioned men, who, possessed of love for 
their neighbor, anxiously desire his happiness, and 
condole with him in his misfortunes. These two 
classes belong to my own party. I write for the 
good of men who ordinarily surrender themselves 
up to be led blindly by those in whom they sup- 
pose exists a certain right to direct them. I will 
make my remarks intelligible, in order that such 
may not be deceived by specious arguments, whose 
futility is found enveloped in the sacred mantle of 
religion. My only concern is to be understood. 
I have no fear of being confuted. 



CONTENTS, 



PAGE. 

Introduction ■ 3 

Dedication 9 

Preface . . , 11 

PROPOSITION I. 
The right to establish legal impediments to matrimony, 
and to annul and revoke the same, belongs to the 

temporal or state authority 19 

Proof 1. From the nature of matrimony 19 

" 2. From the use which temporal authority has 

made of this right 29 

" 3. From the doctrine of the church in early 

ages 32 

Scholium. — From the 4th Canon of the 24th Session 

of the Council of Trent 36 

General Inferences 40 

PROPOSITION II. 
The impediment of clerical orders ought to be abolished 42 

§ 1. That impediment is unjust 42 

§ 2. It gives rise to immorality in the Clergy 49 

§ 3. Immorality in the Clergy has a peculiar tendency 

to promote public immorality t . . . 60 

2* 



18 CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

§ 4. The law requiring Celibacy is useless 61 

§ 5. Its abrogation is desired by prudent men 62 

§ 6. Clerical Celibacy is not of divine institution... . 66 

§ 7. It is not of apostolic institution 67 

§ 8. History of clerical Celibacy 69 

a. Reflections respecting Pafnucius, and the 
legitimacy of the Council of Trullo 82 

b. Continuation of the History of Celibacy 
down to the present time 85 

§ 9. Compendious view of the institution of clerical 

Celibacy 93 

§ 10. The Western Church was never opposed to the 

Eastern in this respect 94 

§ 11. General View of the arguments 95 

§ 12. It is lawful to censure the discipline of the 

Church 96 

§ 13. The discipline of the Latin Church is impolitic 100 

c onclusion 109 

Appendix 113 



CLERICAL CELIBACY, 



PROPOSITION L 

The right to establish absolute impediments to Mat- 
rimony, and to annul and revoke the same, belongs 
to the temporal or State Authority. 

The nature of matrimony itself, the example of 
catholic sovereigns, the doctrine of the church in 
the most enlightened ages of Christianity, and the 
authority of respected authors, will furnish us with 
arguments whose irresistible force will produce 
the necessary conviction of the truth of our propo- 
sition. 

PROOF I. 

FROM THE NATURE OF MATRIMONY. 

Matrimony, in the opinion of all governments 
and in the doctrine of the church, as taught in her 
rituals and catechisms, is, in its origin, a lawful 
contract between one man and one woman, which 
God has authorized for the multiplication of the hu- 
man race. From this simple and natural defini- 
tion, it is inferred, 1 . That matrimony derives its 
origin from the Author of Nature, who in Paradise 
directed the first parents of the human race to be 



20 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

fruitful and multiply , and replenish the earth. 2. 
That in the social state, whose object is to guar- 
anty the rights of each, and to make those of the 
individual subordinate to those of the whole, it be- 
longs to the government to regulate this contract 
in such a manner that the ends of its institution 
may be realized. 3. That since this contract is 
of such importance, that on it depends the perpe- 
tuity of our species, the education of posterity, the 
peace of families, and hence the tranquillity, secu- 
rity, and prosperity of the state — the government 
can not forego the right of regulating it, without 
losing the very essence of its existence, which 
consists in uniting the several functions necessary 
to maintain the w^ell-being of society. 

Hence, therefore, the prerogative of establishing 
impediments to matrimony, must be considered as 
belonging to the indisputable and inalienable rights 
of the government of a nation. 

The absurdities which follow the negation of 
such a right to a government, are evident ; while 
it is still worse to yield it to a foreign authority, 
and one which is independent of civil power. 

Society would oftentimes be found in contradic- 
tion with itself, and thus carried to the very verge 
of anarchy. If this evil has not as yet been car- 
ried to its highest pitch, the fact is due to the hu- 
miliation of those governments which suffer their 
subjects to ask exemption from law at the hands 
of a foreign power, and to the indulgence with 
which such favors are ordinarily granted. 

Matrimony, then, from its very nature, is a con- 
tract, having for its foundation natural rights, 
which are subordinate to the interests of society, 



NATURE OF MATRIMONY, 21 

and therefore under the jurisdiction of civil au- 
thority. 

Some, however, urge that matrimony, being 
among Christians a sacrament, is as such exclu- 
sively subordinate to the church, and affirm that no 
disposition of the secular authority can have any 
effect upon its validity. The falsity of this asser- 
tion will be manifest, when it is proved that in 
matrimony the contract and the sacrament are two 
things, distinct in quality and separate in their na- 
ture ; and that, although the contract were identi- 
cal with the sacrament, yet, from this circumstance, 
secular authority would by no means have lost ju- 
risdiction over it. 

Otherwise, it would be necessary to admit the 
absurdity that when Christ instituted his church 
and spiritual kingdom,* he nevertheless made de- 
pendant on it the validity of a temporal contract ; 
whose principal object is the mutual advantage, 
the propagation of our species and education of 
posterity ; and thus introduced confusion and dis- 
order into society by depriving civil government 
of an essential right, and revolutionizing the very 
objects of that society which God has established, 
and which he orders and protects as well as the 

* It appears superfluous to cite authorities in proof of a 
truth so well understood at the present time as that Christ's 
kingdom is not of this world ; however, to avoid the censure 
of some of our over righteous ones, I will refer to Fleury, 
Eccl. Hist., Dis. vii. He says, " It is evident from the New 
Testament, and from the tradition of the first ten centuries, 
that the kingdom of Christ is purely spiritual ; that he came 
on earth only to establish the true worship of God, accom- 
panied by a pure morality, without interfering with the po- 
litical government of different nations, neither in their laws 
nor customs which only have respect to the present life." 



22 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

church herself. Revolutions these, which more 
than once have ruined states, and brought into dis- 
credit the authority of that church which has pro- 
moted them by her criminal invasions upon the 
dominion of temporal power.* 

The early ages of the church exhibit the true 
rule of her discipline. Fortunately, she then rec- 
ognised no other right respecting matrimonial con- 
tracts than that of watching over them, like other 
human actions, in order to declare them iniquitous 
before the bar of conscience, when contrary to the 
Divine law. She recognised it as her duty to su- 
perintend the execution of the laws of sovereigns 
respecting marriages, and often had recourse to 
those sovereigns in order to declare invalid such 
marriages as she deemed opposed to the morality 
of the gospel. f 

The infidel who, after marriage, professed Chris- 
tianity, was never obliged to renew his marriage 
before the church. 

Catechumens, who, during a series of years, 
were preparing themselves for baptism, were nev- 

* Notorious are the bloody conflicts which have occurred 
between popes and kings relating to subjects within jurisdic- 
tion of the latter. Without wandering from the subject be- 
fore me, I might cite numberless examples of difficulty on 
account of ecclesiastics intermeddling with a view to suspend 
the validity of matrimony. The Emperor Leo was attacked 
by the Patriarch of Constantinople, on account of his mar- 
riage with Zoe. Every one is acquainted with the persecu- 
tion which Adrian II. put forth against Loterus, king of 
Lorena, and with the excesses of Gregory V. against Robert 
the Pious, because he married his kinswoman Berta. 

None of these things would have happened, if the church 
had been content to keep in her own proper sphere. 

t 112 Can. Afric. Cod. Tom. 2, Cone. S. Ambros aTheodos. 
Greg. 2 a Luistpr. 



NATURE OF MATRIMONY. 23 

er prohibited from contracting marriage ; because 
trie doctrine was then current that matrimony re- 
suited from the mutual agreement of the parties, 
ratified according to legal forms. The same was 
repeated by Nicolas I. to the clergy of Belgium ; 
by Eugene IV. in the council of Florence ; and 
was subsequently consecrated in the catechism of 
the council of Trent, which teaches, section 24, 
that marriages under the law of the gospel exceed 
those of former dispensations,, in the grace which 
perfects natural love, confirms the indissoluble unity 
of husband and wife, and sanctifies the conjugal, re- 
lation. 

Such, in fact, is the doctrine and practice of the 
church toward Christians themselves, among whom 
she frequently grants marriages merely in the light 
of contracts. 

Public penitents, separated from the church, 
were not admitted to the reception of sacraments 
during the first degrees of their penance ; neverthe- 
less young men were permitted to marry, or at 
least their marriages were tolerated by indulgence, 
as St. Leo himself affirms.* Such marriages could 
not be anything more than contracts, since matri- 
mony is a sacrament of the living, as theologians 
express themselves, and can not be administered 
to penitents before their reconciliation. 

Virgins and monks who married notwithstand- 
ing their vows, while those vows were not regard- 
ed as a legal impediment, were held to be truly 
married ; but it is certain that such marriages 
were not celebrated before the church, nor by her 

* Epist. ad R-ustic Narb. 



24 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

ministers, who would have detested them ; and 
therefore were merely contracts.* 

Marriages between Christians and infidels, al- 
though not declared null, or when granted by dis- 
pensation, are nothing but contracts ; since all 
know that an infidel is incapable of receiving a 
sacrament, and therefore in this case it is admin- 
istered to neither of the contractors.! 

Among heretics, without the pale of the church, 
who neither believe in the sacrament of matrimony 
nor have ministers possessed of any right to ad- 
minister it, how can marriages be considered as 
sacraments 1 Nevertheless, Benedict XIV. de- 
clared them valid, independent of being ratified in 
presence of a curate, even when converted.;): 

Catholics who contract matrimony while a se- 
cret legal impediment exists — being secretly dis- 
pensed, notwithstanding the absence of the curate 
— are truly married, according to the determina- 
tion of the same Benedict XIV., in a case of this 
instance, substantiating himself on the declaration 
of Pius V.|| 

Christians marrying by proxy were always held 
as truly married, notwithstanding they never con- 
firmed their nuptials in presence of a curate. No 
one, however, will attempt to maintain that, being 
absent, they can receive the sacrament by proxy, 
since the union of the substance and the form ap- 
plied by the minister to the subject, can not be re- 

* St. Augus., Tom. 6, col. 375. Vide Pocier Traite sur la 
Matrimonie et Dupin Bibliotheque, sec. 5, par. 1. 

t Tertullian, lib. 2, ad uxor. St. Augus. de Conjug. adult., 
lib. 1, cap. 25. Sinod. Elib., can. 15. 

tTom. 1. Bui., p. 87. Brief of March 13, 1741. 

|| Sistem Lubi de Teolog., Tr. Matrim. 



NATURE OF MATRIMONY. 25 

alized ; but it is, in the view of theologians, a cir- 
cumstance essential to the validity of a sacra- 
ment. To save myself the trouble of refuting the 
frivolous reasons by which some endeavor to main- 
tain the existence of the sacrament in such mar- 
riages, I will avail myself of the authority of the 
great Cano, who not only affirms that the church 
never taught that all marriages among the faithful 
are sacraments, but also pronounces the dulness 
and folly of those who maintain the contrary to be 
undeserving a reply.* 

Second marriages are deprived of the nuptial 
blessing in which all antiquity, and the Greek 
church to the present day has made the sacrament 
to consist. Third and fourth nuptials were so 
much condemned, as to involve those who cele- 
brated them in severe penance. At the same 
time such marriages were considered valid, not- 
withstanding the aversion which the church held 
toward them ; and they are among us at present, 
notwithstanding they are unaccompanied with the 
nuptial blessing.f 

Clandestine marriages anterior to the council 
of Trent were held to be valid, although not cele- 
brated by a priest.J 

* Cano, lib. 8, cap. 8. Palavicin in Hist., lib. 23, cap. 9. 

t The Apost. Const., lib. 3, cap. 2, call second marriages un- 
lawful ; third, intemperance ; and all subsequent, fornication. 

St. Greg. Nanz., 31 j St. Basil, 4, &c. The council of Sal- 
amanca, in 1335, persuaded itself, cap. 11, that the blessing 
should not be granted even in second marriages, in order not 
to repeat the sacrament. 

t Cone. Trid., sec. 24. As early as A. D. 400, a Spanish 
council in Toledo had determined, can. 19, that persons who 
kept a single concubine, in place of a wife, should not be ex- 
communicated. So little did they regard the sacrament es- 
sential to the validity of the contract, when the laws did not 
make it null. q 



26 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

The celebrated Carranza, in his catechism, ap- 
proved by a deputation of the council of Trent, 
states that in some countries it was eustomary to 
marry before a magistrate, previous to going to the 
church to receive the sacrament. This practice 
was doubtless founded on the doctrine of St. Am- 
brose and other fathers, as well as upon the canon 
law.* All these facts in the history of the church 
prove conclusively the distinction between the 
contract and the sacrament in matrimony, and also 
that among Catholics themselves there have been 
and still are many persons married merely in the 
light of a contract, without the slightest impropri- 
ety or shadow of sin. 

In reply to these arguments, resort has been 
made to the assertion that among Christians mar- 
riages are, by the very act, exalted from contracts 
to sacraments ; the contractors themselves becom- 
ing ministers in the case, and that the priest is 
therefore only the qualified witness required by 
the canons, and the blessing no more than a cere- 
mony of the church, without any sacramental ef- 
fect. The absurdity of this opinion will now be 
shown. 

How can it be believed that in sacraments ne- 
cessary to salvation, e. g., baptism and penance, 
the subject, although a priest, can not even in the 
most urgent case administer them to himself, and 
yet matrimony, a sacrament in no way essential to 
salvation, can be celebrated by the contractors 

* St. Ambr. again, Ep. 19, a Vig.., says that marriage ought 
to be sanctified by the blessing of the priest — " Conjugium 
sacerdotali benedictione sanctificari opportetP Nevertheless he 
maintains, Lib. de Inst. Virg., cap. 6, that the contract con- 
stitutes matrimony— " Facit conjugium pactio conjugalis." 



NATURE OF MATRIMONY. 27 

themselves, who for the time being assume the 
authority of ministers, thus excluding this sacra- 
ment from the administration of the priesthood, 
whose very office consists in imparting to the 
faithful the grace of the Savior, as communicated 
by means of the sacraments ? The very idea is 
refuted by the practice of the church. It is con- 
trary to the nature of the sacraments, as well as 
condemned by the best authors. 

Heretics who disbelieve in the sacrament of 
matrimony, can not be capable of administering it. 
Nevertheless, they contract matrimony in valid 
form, and, as we have already observed, Benedict 
XIV. does not permit their marriages to be re- 
newed after their conversion. 

A Catholic may marry a heretic or an infidel, 
being properly dispensed, and if the contractors 
are to become ministers of the sacrament, why 
may not the Catholic in this case administer it 
alone ? The heretic and the infidel would neither 
believe in it, nor wish to perform or receive such a 
sacrament ; and though the heretic did desire to 
do either, he would be unable, because he is ex- 
communicated, and thus deprived of all rights as a 
Christian. 

Moreover, even the minister himself, without an 
intention to administer the sacrament, does not ad- 
minister it.* But, among us, neither party has any 
such intention, because they are unacquainted with 
any such office : on the contrary, both expect to 
receive the sacrament of matrimony from the priest. 
How, then, is it administered in the actual marriage 
of Catholics ? 

* Concil. Trid., sec. 7, can. 11. 



28 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

Let us suppose, however, that the civil contract 
is transformed into a sacrament, and that among 
Christians the former is inseparable from the latter. 
Now, since the contract is the basis on which the 
sacrament rests, or rather, since the lawful contract 
is the only thing made a sacrament, and that has a 
priority of existence, it is beyond a question that 
the civil authority still retains its jurisdiction over 
the civil contract, and that contract loses none of 
its subordination to civil power, although elevated 
into a sacrament. Thus the citizen, by becoming 
a Christian, does not alter his relations to civil au- 
thority, although his individual character and per- 
sonal dignity are by virtue of baptism elevated to 
a higher category, and he has, under this new re- 
lation, also come under the cognizance of spiritual 
authority. 

Thus the matrimonial contract remains in every 
respect subject to the laws of society, although as 
elevated to the rank of a sacrament, it is equally 
subject to the laws of the church. Hence it fol- 
lows that if two individuals contract matrimony 
according to civil law, and not according to eccle- 
siastical law, still they will be validly married, 
although the sacrament be not received. 

Both kinds of authority are independent. Each 
one may legislate upon subjects within its own ju- 
risdiction. But as spiritual authority has for its 
immediate object the salvation of souls, and not the 
public tranquillity, like the civil power, it can not 
in the nature of things determine upon matters in- 
dependent of that especial object. Still more, it 
can not intermeddle in opposition to temporal au- 
thority under any pretensions, without admitting 



TEMPORAL AUTHORITY. 29 

the absurd and anti-social maxim of the influence 
of one power over another, with a reciprocal inva- 
sion of each other's attributes. From such con- 
flicting claims the most destructive consequences 
have always ensued. 

It has now been demonstrated that matrimony 
is by its very nature entirely and exclusively sub- 
ject to the civil authority, whether considered as 
a contract distinct from the sacrament, or whether 
in union with the sacrament placed in a new cate- 
gory, which grace confers upon it the moment 
that the union is realized. We shall proceed to 
prove our proposition by the use which Catholic 
sovereigns have made of this right of establishing 
and revoking impediments to matrimony, not in 
opposition to the church, but with her decided 
approbation. 



PROOF II. 

FROM THE USE WHICH THE TEMPORAL AUTHORITY 
HAS MADE OF THIS RIGHT. 

The Roman emperors were converted. The 
solid virtues of the pastors of the church, their 
learning, their charity, and the miracles which 
they performed, attracted toward them a high ven- 
eration. 

Exemptions, privileges, and largesses, conferred 
upon them exaltation and grandeur. Even matters 
of temporal interest were carried before their tri- 
bunal, as the most just, impartial, and full of equity. 
All this occurred, but the emperors neither yielded 
to the church the right of regulating matrimony, 
3* 



30 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

nor did she claim any such right. Previous laws 
were in all respects observed, and the church 
merely watched over them, and became zealous 
for their execution. 

Justinian, the emperor who legislated so much 
upon ecclesiastical affairs, in no one of his laws 
makes mention of the sacred ritual when treating 
of matrimony.* He annulled the marriages of per- 
sons of rank, when not preceded by the stipulation 
of a dowry. To persons of a less elevated station 
he granted the alternative of either stipulating a 
dowry, or if they preferred, of going to a church, 
and there, in presence of the Patron Saint and of 
three or four priests, declaring that they received 
each other mutually as husband and wife. Per- 
sons in the lower classes of society he permitted 
to marry without even this formality.! 

A century before, Theodosius the Powerful de- 
clared marriages valid between persons of equal 
condition, when confirmed by their mutual consent 
and proved by the testimony of their friends. 

In the East, it was Leo the Philosopher who 
at the beginning of the tenth century made the 
nuptial blessing essential to the validity of matri- 
mony. J He dispensed slaves from this, but Alexus 
Comenus subjected them to it. In the West, it 
was Charles the Great who made the nuptial bles- 
sing necessary in many cases. § Tabarus says, 
" If you consult the Codex Salicorn of the Goths, 

* Lib. 4, Decret., tit. 19 and 8, affirms that the sacrament of 
matrimony (evidently in a latent sense), exists both among 
the faithful and the unbelieving. — u Sacramentum conjugii apud 
Jidelesy et infideles existit." 

t Lex. 23, par 7, Cod. de Nupt. 

X Const. Emp. Leon, 89. 

J Cap. 408, lib. 6, p. J79 ; lib. 7. 



TEMPORAL AUTHORITF. 31 

Visigoths, &c., you will everywhere find that the 
sovereign determined respecting matrimony, regu- 
lating its forms and conditions, granting or denying 
dispenses, and that the contract always appeared 
distinct from the sacrament."* 

Daguesus observes, that in the first nine centu- 
ries, the church conformed herself to the laws of 
the state, and never assumed to honor with the 
sacrament a union condemned by the laws of 
princes. t 

Chatizel, after maintaining the same opinion, 
adds, that up to the fourteenth century, history 
offered traces of the custom in question.^ 

In France, as late as 1635, marriages of princes 
of the royal blood, without the consent of the king, 
were held to be null, and Louis XIII. did not hesi- 
tate to declare invalid the marriage of his brother 
Gastan. When theologians were consulted, and 
the affair was referred to a national council, the 
marriage was by all pronounced null.§ 

At the present day, marriages among minors are 
invalid both in France and Austria, and in this 
empire, proclamation is a necessary condition to 
the validity of the marriage contract. Moreover, 

* Tabaro do Contrato e do Sacramento do Matrimonio. 

f Tom. 3, edit, quart., p. 69. 

t Theodosius, in establishing the impediment of consan- 
guinity in the second degree, reserved to himself the right of 
dispensing it. Heraclius granted himself a dispense to marry 
his niece Martina. Theodoricus, in Italy, dispensed impedi- 
ments to marriages both before and after they were contracted. 
See Flodoard, Hist. Keel., for the case of Bodheim, whose mar- 
riage was declared null by an assembly, because it lacked the 
consent of Charles the Bald. The case of John, Prince of Bo- 
hemia, is notorious, whose marriage was annulled by the Em- 
peror Louis IV., and who afterward granted Margaret a dis- 
pensation to again marry her kinsman. 

$ Mcmorias do Clero da Franqa. 



32 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

a recent law has come into effect, by which simple 
adultery, substantiated before a court, becomes a 
ground of divorce.* It only remains to consider 
the doctrine of the church on this point. 



PROOF III. 

FROM THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH IN EARLY 
AGES. 

Athenagoras in his apology addressed to Mar- 
cus Aurelius and Commodus, asserts that "the 
Christians only recognized as wives those females 
who had been espoused according to their laws."f 

Pope Celestine I., being consulted respecting 
the second marriage of one who abandoned the 
first because it had not been celebrated before the 
church, decided in favor of the first, in order that 
the faith of an oath be not trampled upon, and that 
a reciprocal promise should be kept.\ 

St. Basil makes the validity of matrimony in 
the case of slaves and minors, consist in the con- 
sent of their masters and parents. § 

St. Ambrose recognised the essential parts of 
matrimony as consisting in the contract, and also 
St. John Chrysostom. The latter, although he 
confessed sovereigns might err in their laws, yet 
declares, that they ought to be obeyed, both in cele- 

* Lubi, Sistem. de Theol., trac. de matr. 
f According to the correction of D. Prud. Marant. Ad calcem 
oper. St. Justin. 
t Decret. Grat., causa 35, quest 6, can. 2. 
§ Epist. 2, ad Amphilech. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 33 

brating matrimony and in making a will, either of 
which otherwise would be invalid and useless* 

St. Augustine teaches that marriages with sec- 
ond nephews or neices were lawful, because the 
divine law did not prohibit them, nor had human 
law as yet prohibited them.f The council of Or- 
leans in A. D. 541, declared null those marriages 
of slaves and of minors which had not received 
the assent of the parents and masters.^ 

Theodore of Canterbury says in his collection of 
canons, that among the Latins no marriages were 
permitted within the fifth degree of affinity, as 
appeared from the Roman questions. § 

St. Theodoret the learned, when consulted re- 
specting the validity of second marriages ; seeing 
they were deprived of the sacerdotal blessing, in 
which the Greeks affirm that matrimony consists ; 
replied, unhesitatingly, that they were legitimate 
marriages when contracted in conformity with the 
laws.% 

Nicolas I. replied to the bishops of Belgium 
that according to the laws respecting matrimony, the 
consent of the parties was sufficient, and that the 
nuptial blessing might be omitted without sin** 

Adrian II., when consulted respecting a mar- 
riage celebrated according to all the forms pre- 
scribed in the civil law, but without the interven- 

* St. Ambrose, Ep. 13, ad Syr., says : " God can not approve 
the marriages of the faithful with unbelievers, because the law 
prohibits them." See his Epist. ad Patern. Jo. Cr. Homil., 
15 ad pop. Antioch. 

t De Civit Dei., lib. 15, cap. 16. 

t Tom. 5, col. 385. 

§ Tom. 1, Spicileg. 

T[ Epist. 50, ad Naucrat. 

** Condi. Tom. 8, art. 2, col. 517, art. 3 ; col. 518. 



34 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

tion of a priest, decided that such a marriage, since 
it exhibited nothing conflicting with canonical law, 
could not be condemned* 

Yvo de Chartres, the most able canonist of the 
12th century, maintains in all his letters that mat- 
rimony is neither valid nor invalid except by virtue 
of the civil laws.\ 

Alexander III., when consulted touching the 
validity of a marriage, ratified merely with the 
ceremonies prescribed in civil law, decided that 
it was of such complete validity that in case either 
party should marry another, even after carnal con- 
nexion, the same would be obliged to return to the 
first marriage.^ 

Benedict X. being asked by the patriarch Gau- 
dencius, whether there was any impediment to 
matrimony between a young woman and a young 
man who had been espoused to a deceased sister 
of the former, answered that he could not con- 
demn a marriage which neither the scriptures nor 
the civil laws condemned. § 

Pius VI., in the briefs addressed to the Bishop 
of Lysia, and the Archbishop of Tarsus, declares 
valid and lawful such marriages as had been con- 
tracted during the revolution, on condition they had 
been conformable to civil law. 

Benedict XIV. had already decided to the same 
effect respecting the Dutch. The Bishop of Lan- 
gres in his pasoral instructions, ] 5th March, 

* Beluz. Miscell., torn. 1. 

f Epist. 167. It should be observed that the first general Lat- 
eran Council founds its prohibition of the marriage of kinsfolk 
both upon divine and secular law. 

X Tom. 10, Concil., col. 1574. 

§ Tom. 10, col. 1581. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 35 

1791, declares that the nuptial blessing will con- 
tinue to be administered to those who desire it, 
although not considered essential to the validity of 
the civil contract.* 

Innumerable documents are offered us by the 
history of the church, from which we learn that 
the ground of prohibitions and legal impediments 
to matrimony in early times was either the divine 
law, or that of the civil government. It is true 
that in some of the Fathers and councils, princi- 
pally those of the 9th century and subsequent 
periods, are occasionally found decisions relative 
to the validity of matrimony. This circumstance 
is owing in part to the duty imposed on the church 
of examining their validity, with reference to 
sanctifying them by the sacrament ; which in- 
sensibly led her ministers to think themselves 
authorized to legislate respecting said contract. 
In addition to this was the consent and approba- 
tion of sovereigns, who having resorted to the 
nuptial blessing as the most efficacious means of 
securing honesty in matrimonial engagements and 
happiness to the married state, often yielded up to 
the ministers of the church decisions respecting 
matrimony, just as they had done subsequent to 
Constantine, with many other questions of merely 
temporal concern. Part, finally, was owing to the 
ignorance of sovereigns themselves, who in the 

* Reference should be made to the celebrated conference 
between the Archbishop of Cambis and the Cardinal Antoneli, 
which is found in the collection of Briefs. The Cardinal there 
maintains that mutual consent is the essential part of matri- 
mony, and consequently, that marriages among the French, 
although unaccompanied by the forms required by the Council 
of Trent, should be considered valid, unless their invalidity 
were shown upon other principles. 



36 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

dark ages delivered themselves wholly up to the 
direction of priests, while those priests assumed 
not only to legislate upon matrimony, but also 
upon wills, upon the persons and property of ec- 
clesiastics, upon churches, and even upon the 
rights of citizens and the destiny of empires.* 

But as nothing is easier than to quibble upon 
vague quotations, we perceive that an attempt has 
been made to refute all these considerations, by 
means of a canon of the Council of Trent. We 
now proceed to dispose of this objection which 
appears insurmountable to those who have either 
no desire or no ability to reason. 



SCHOLIUM. 

THE 4TH CANON OF THE 24TH SESSION OF THE 
COUNCIL OF TRENT DOES NOT BIAS THE PRES- 
ENT QUESTION. 

A fixed principle in sacred hermeneutics is, 
that councils must be understood and interpreted 
according to the object they had in view in the for- 
mation of this or that canon. 

Now, since it is undeniable that the Fathers 
assembled in the Council of Trent proposed to 
themselves no other object than that of combating 
and anathematizing the errors of Luther and his 
sectaries, it evidently follows that the canon under 
consideration condemns no other opinion than that 
which denied to the church the power of estab- 

* Fleury 4 and 7, Disc, sur., Hist. Eccl. Beside this, con- 
sult the different general and minor councils, e. g. the 4th Lat- 
eran, where will be found a specimen of legislation, civil and 
penal, upon matters purely temporal. 



COUNCIL OF TRENT. 37 

iishing any other impediments than those laid 
down in Leviticus, without pretending to decide 
whether the contract of matrimony among Chris- 
tians was distinct from the sacrament, or whether 
the right of imposing legal impediments which the 
church possessed, was delegated to her by the 
temporal authority. The council decided truly. 
For the church had the right of imposing true and 
valid impediments, proceeding either from a pre- 
carious and delegated authority, or from that 
which was proper and essential.* 

Nor was it possible that the council should de- 
cide with other views — a council which proposed 
to decide nothing dogmatically, unless as was 
their duty, their decisions were based on scripture 
and tradition, and unless by discussion they could 
obtain a unanimity of votes. Now on this subject 
no passage of scripture was found to favor the 
opposite view, while, on the contrary, all tradition 
formally condemned it. Besides, the most able 
theologians were, and have continued to be, even 
since the Council of Trent, of our own opinion. 
These circumstances clearly prove that canon to 
have contemplated no other object than that of 
confirming Catholics against heretics in the doc- 
trine that they ought to be subject to the impedi- 
ments established by the church properly under- 
stood ; until either she or the power which had 
ceded to her the right in question or permitted to 
her its exercise, should revoke them. 

Melchior Cano, the bishop so distinguished at 
the Council of Trent, and whose writings still en- 
joy the respect and veneration of the orthodox, 

* Palavicini, Hist. Cone. Trid. 
4 



38 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

maintains that among Catholics many marriages 
have no characteristic of a sacrament. 

Now it must be evident that such being merely 
civil contracts can not be subject to the jurisdic- 
tion of the church except by permission of the 
temporal authority. 

Giles Foscari, bishop of Modena, maintains 
that temporal authority has lost none of its jurisdic- 
tion over matrimony by the circumstance of its be- 
ing constituted a sacrament.* 

Catarinus, bishop of Conza, who rendered him- 
self illustrious at the council referred to, asserts 
that when Christ made matrimony a sacrament, 
he in no way altered its natural or political rela- 
tions ; and hence it will always remain the same, 
and in the same manner subject to that authority 
which presides over civil order. f 

The celebrated Peter Soto, a theologian of 
Pius IV., declared in the same council that it was 
through the willingness and piety of princes that 
the church had acquired the right of imposing im- 
pediments to matrimony 4 Jacob Naclantus,|| and 
Domingos Soto,§ were of the same sentiment, not- 
withstanding they voted to establish the 4th canon 
of the 24th section. Besides these, numberless 
others have continued to defend our views, and 
at the present day they are current in the greater 
part of the universities of Europe. 

From all this we conclude that the council of 
Trent decided merely that Christians ought to be 

* Palavicin Higt. Cone. Trid., Lib. 22. 

t Trat. dos Matrimonios Cland., em 1552. 

t Lib. 3. Inst. Christ. — de Sacr. Matr. — de Instr. sacer. 

|| Trat. 16, de irrit. eland, conj. § In 4 cent. Dist. 40. 



COUNCIL OF TRENT. 39 

subject to those impediments established by the 
church. 

But if any thing else was meant, as far as the 
present question is concerned, it was neither Fol- 
lowed nor adopted by many orthodox writers and 
several entire kingdoms, did not consent to its 
publication, but continued to establish and re- 
voke impediments at their own pleasure, the 
council to the contrary notwithstanding. Now 
it is a maxim of St. Bernard, founded on the doc- 
trine of the church, that " when the orthodox are 
in doubt, there is no authority" From this, it fol- 
lows, at least, that our opinion is not heretical.* 

Upon this subject it may be well to consult the 
famous work of Lonoa. Regia in matrimonium 
potestas ; the Elements of Christian Theology, 
by Anthony of Genoa — the letter of M. Leplat to 
Pope Pius VI., in 1782 ; the works of Pereira, 
Rieger, Eibel ; the article Marriage et Empeche- 
ment, &c. ; Dictionaire Theol., de Bergier; and, 
above all, the work of Tabarus — Principles of 
Distinction between the Contract and Sacrament of 
Matrimony; Paris edition, 1825. The latter 
work, especially, discusses this subject, with the 
most profound skill and erudition, and gives ref- 
erence to other celebrated writers, who may be 
consulted with great propriety.! 

* Fides ambiguum non habet, quod si habet, fidis non est. 

f Anthony, of Genoa, generally speaks with the greatest 
reserve respecting all ultramontane maxims, which he doubt- 
less abhorred ; nevertheless, on the present question he ex- 
plains himself as follows : i{ There has been no little contro- 
versy upon the question to whom belongs the right of estab- 
lishing legal impediments to matrimony. But since matri- 
mony is in the first place a civil contract, the regulation of it 
without doubt belongs to the sovereign. As a sa /ramenL, 



40 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 



GENERAL INFERENCES. 

*From the considerations already adduced, the 
following reflections necessarily arise: — 

1. Matrimony, as a contract, is entirely and 
exclusively subordinate to civil authority. 

2. Spiritual authority may require conditions, 
without which the sacrament can not be adminis- 
tered. 

3. As it would be an outrage for a sovereign to 
assume to regulate the sacrament and prescribe its 
forms, under pretext that said sacrament falls un- 
der a contract subject to his jurisdiction ; so is it 
an equal outrage for the church to assume to reg- 
ulate the contract of matrimony, under pretext 
that it is merged in the sacrament. 

4. To prescribe those rules by which matrimo- 
ny may be validly contracted, with reference to 
fulfilling the designs of Providence, falls within 
the prerogative of sovereigns. 

5. To examine whether the contract is lawfully 
consummated according to laws human and divine, 
in order to become worthy of sanctifi cation by the 
sacrament, and to prescribe forms for the adminis- 
tration of the latter, belongs to the authority of 
the church. 

6. Notwithstanding the church has possessed 
the power of establishing and dispensing impedi- 

however, neither the most powerful sovereigns nor the (N. B.) 
church herself has any right to interfere with its substance ." 
He concludes thus : u The impediments which appear to be 
imposed by the church are none other than those of natural 
or divine right, which consequently she does not determine, 
but merely declares. n 



GENERAL INFERENCES. 41 

ments, either through the consent, ignorance, or 
permission of the temporal authority, yet this ju- 
risdiction is precarious, and might at any moment 
be taken away and restored where it belongs, by 
a natural and essential right, and is consequently 
inalienable. 

7. The Council of Trent did not and could not 
design to condemn this opinion, because it is the 
only true one ; according to the nature of matri- 
mony, the practice of the church in her most pros- 
perous periods, and the example of Catholic mon- 
archs, who have established, dispensed, and an- 
nulled impediments, when and as they judged 
proper. 



42 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 



PROPOSITION SECOND. 

THERE IS NECESSITY OF ABOLISHING THE 
IMPEDIMENT OF CLERICAL ORDERS. 

Being now assured that supreme jurisdiction on 
this subject belongs to temporal authority, nothing 
remains but to show the propriety or the necessity 
of abolishing the impediment of orders, so that 
priests may lawfully marry. 

This necessity will be manifest from three 
striking considerations. 1. The injustice of that 
impediment. 2. The great evils it occasions, in- 
stead of producing any good. 3. Because, although 
it were innocent, yet it is useless. 

§1. THE IMPEDIMENT OF CLERICAL ORDERS IS 

UNJUST. 

No human law can be just unless it is based upon 
natural right. Society, of whatever kind, has, and 
can have, no other object than that of securing the 
common good of its members. Whenever, then, 
any law deprives man of a right bestowed on him 
by the Author of nature, except in cases where 
the privation of that right is indispensable to the 
general welfare, it becomes manifestly unjust. 

The right which man possesses of contracting 
matrimony, is one essential to our species. It is 
a right so sacred that its exercise, in many cases, 
becomes a duty of the greatest importance to so- 



IMPEDIMENT UNJUST. 43 

ciety and to individuals. How then can any human 
authority determine that a priest may not contract 
matrimony I To determine that he may not make 
that contract until after a certain age, when nature 
determines the periods between which it ought to 
take place ; to determine that he may not without 
the previous consent of those to whom as a minor 
he is responsible, and without certain formalities 
requisite to secure the perpetuity of the contract, 
or without certain compliances which make it 
lawful, honorable, and suitable to the reception of 
the sacrament ; all this may be prudently and 
practically conceded as the prerogative of civil 
jurisdiction. 

Such impediments proceeding from human pow- 
er, have no tendency to deprive man of his essen- 
tial right in this case, but merely to prevent his 
exercising it in an improper manner. The im- 
pediment of orders alone tends to nullify this 
right. If the contract is prohibited by other im- 
pediments in this way, it is permitted in that. If 
it is denied at one time it is granted at another. 
In the case of orders, however, there is no time, 
no place, no circumstance, which can permit the 
enjoyment of that natural right. This simple 
reason abundantly proves the injustice of such an 
impediment- 
It is objected, that since in the general neither 
this man nor that is obliged to marry, the right 
may with propriety be ceded. Under the plausi- 
bility of this reasoning, an attempt is made to 
hide the injustice of the law. The futility of that 
attempt, I proceed to show. 

No man can ccclp rights with which he is en- 



44 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

dowed by the good pleasure of his Creator. Such 
an act would be characterized by irreflection, and 
hence would be rebellion against the general or- 
der of that providence by which all things have 
been arranged in view of certain determinate ends, 
and to which every man is obliged to conform. 
Besides, the propensity to matrimony being innate 
and essential to the species, is liable to become a 
passion, and in such case extremely difficult if not 
impossible to control. 

How then can any man without the height of 
imprudence, and a wicked pride, yield up for ever 
a right, the exercise of which often becomes a 
duty, and the sacrifice of which may bring in its 
train the violation of many other duties ? This 
impropriety becomes the more notable in propor- 
tion to the little or no good resulting from the sac- 
rifice. To yield this right temporarily in the spirit 
of penitence and self-denial, with a view to a 
better discharge of duty, according to the explana- 
tion of the Fathers ; or for life, with this reserve 
— provided its cession shall be compatible with 
personal happiness and the discharge of other du- 
ties. Thus much is prudent and approved by re- 
ligion. To this it is rejoined that since absolute 
continence is possible to all, all who subject them- 
selves to it are under perpetual obligations to re- 
main in celibacy. 

I have no wish to appeal to the constitution of 
human nature, nor to the history of those gener- 
ally useless efforts which have been made in this 
species of sacrifice, but for the present simply to 
consult the sentiments of Christian antiquity. 

St. Ignatius in the 1st century said — if any 



THE IMPEDIMENT UNJUST. 45 

one is able to abide in celibacy, let him do it 
with humility.* 

St. Clement of Alexandria, in the 2d century, 
called those happy on whom God had bestowed 
the gift of chastity. f 

St. Cyprian, in the 3d century, preferred that 
even those virgins who had consecrated them- 
selves to God, should marry in case they lacked 
either the desire or the ability to persevere in 
chastity.^ 

St. Epiphanus, of the same century, more than 
once admits that many can not dispense with mar- 
riage. || 

St. Augustine and St. Jerome, of the 4th cen- 
tury, affirm that virginity is a gift of God, not con- 
ferred upon all.§ 

St. Gregory the great, in the 6th century, per- 
mits members of the priesthood who can not per- 
severe in continence, to marry. "J 

Numberless quotations might be added, which 
are unnecessary, since St. Paul taught the Cor- 
inthians that it were " better to marry than to 
burn ;"** and Christ himself declared that conti- 
nence was a divine gift, and that all were not ca- 
pable of maintaining the resolution to practise it. ft 

* Ep ad Polyc, n. 5. f Oper. Clem., str. 3. 

i Cypr. de hab. virg., et ep. ad Pomp. 

|| Epiph. Haeres. 59. § Jeron adv., Jovin. 

\] Reply to the 2d question of St. August. Ap. — Siqui vero 
sunt clerici extra sacros Ordines constituti, qui se continere non 
possuntjSortiriuxwes debent. It matters not that this permis- 
sion is merely extended to the lower clergy ; it is sufficient 
for my purpose that he admits that some are not obligated to 
continue in celibacy. 

** Ep ad Cor. 1., cap. 7. v. Pereira's note. 

tt Math, cap 19, v. 11. The text embraces the opinions of 
Tertulian, St. Ambrose, and others. Vide their commenta- 
ries. 



46 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

Doubtless for these reasons the church even 
at the present time does not regard vows of chas- 
tity, although perpetual, as an impediment which 
mars the validity of matrimony. 

Yet, if anything whatever is capable of dis- 
qualifying a person for this contract, it must be 
the vow of chastity, which is, according to theo- 
logians, a deliberate promise made by one capable 
of that which is promised to God, who accepts it in 
view of a greater good. In the person professing 
the vow there is no constraint, but simply the de- 
sire of perfection. He has yielded up a right 
which he might enjoy, or omit to enjoy, in view 
of becoming better. It appears, then, that this 
sacred pledge has taken away all liberty of ever 
returning to the forfeited right. But for what 
reason has the church ever recognised the valid- 
ity of matrimony, when contracted by such per- 
sons ?* I can discover no other than that which 
St. Cyprian gave, that they be not condemned^ be- 
cause God does not take advantage of the impru- 
dence of men. 

Such vows, after all, must be considered as 
conditional with respect to their object, to which 

* In speaking of vows of chastity, I make no distinction 
between the simple and the solemn vow. All know that they 
are essentially the same, and are, before God, of equal obli- 
gation, and that the distinction was invented by Gracian, in 
order to reconcile the doctrine of St. Augustine and the early 
fathers with the 2d Lateran Council, which constituted the sol- 
emn vow of the 2d in the monastic profession, an absolute 
impediment to matrimony. This doctrine, however, was 
not practised in the church, either with respect to the mo- 
nastic profession or sacred orders, until after the decision of 
Boniface VIII. Cap. uni. de vol. et vot. redemp. in 6. 

f Melius est, ut nubaret, quam in ignem delictis suis ca- 
dant. Cypr. Ep. ad. Pomp. 



THE IMPEDIMENT UNJUST. 47 

there remains a salvo ; provided their fulfilment 
becomes so difficult as to compromise their hap- 
piness, because the church is certain that this is 
the will of the Sovereign Benefactor, 

Now, if such is the doctrine of the church 
with respect to those who voluntarily make vows 
of chastity to God, how can we believe that a 
promise to continue in celibacy, made to men, is 
so binding that it can in no case be broken by 
marriage. Let us speak the truth. When an in- 
dividual fails in a promise to God, which he 
could, although with difficulty, perform, he is 
guilty ; but his marriage is valid, because he was 
not at liberty wholly and absolutely to forego that 
right. His promise in such case was only a 
genuine purpose. 

If, then, he fails in his promise to men when, 
without inconvenience, he could keep it, he, also, 
is guilty ; but his marriage is still more valid, 
because the violation of his promise is much less 
iniquitous. * 

* The Council of Trent, session 24, can. 9, in anathema- 
tizing those who say that persons who believe they do not 
possess the gift of chastity, although they have vowed to 
maintain it, &c, and those who are prohibited by sacred or- 
ders, &c, does not at all embarrass our views ; because that 
canon could never have had the design of prohibiting that 
respectful censure which every subject may exercise toward 
a law or regulation, when it appears grievous and unjust. 

The council could not, therefore, have had any other de- 
sign than that of condemning the anti-social doctrine of 
those who affirm that the subject may with impunity violate 
a law, when it appears to him unjust or impracticable. Good 
order certainly requires respect for the law until it is revoked, 
or at least until the opinion of its injustice, its inutility, or 
impracticability, has become general. Thus many laws have 
fallen into disuse, and their obligation has ceased. Eg., 
among others, the penitential canons, and those prescribing a 
single kind of food in fasting, abstinence from blood and the 



48 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

The church is so persuaded of this truth, that 
when a Christian, bound by such vows, presents 
himself before her, showing the inconveniences 
of his promise, as the interpreter of the will of 
God, she easily dispenses him from the restrain- 
ing impediment, and among the thousand reserved 
cases Avhich the popes have made, they never in- 
cluded that of this impediment. At least it is 
certain that bishops dispense it without recourse 
to them.* 

How does this proceeding compare with the 
practice introduced in the 12th century, of ad- 
judging the marriages of priests null, merely be- 
cause they had subjected themselves to the laws 
of the church by which marriage was prohibited ? 
Can any one persuade himself that an obligation 
contracted toward the church is of more force 
than one contracted toward God ? 

Those who do not profess the maxims of des- 
potism, who are convinced that no mere whim is 
indulged in the government of the world, but that 
the arrangements of providence manifest high 
and holy designs, worthy of God himself, will 
not hesitate to receive this truth. No one is ca- 
pable of depriving man absolutely and arbitrarily 
of the rights to contract matrimony. 

It is said, however, that the church having the 
right to require certain qualifications in her minis- 
ters, may require celibacy as a necessary condi- 
tion. Without yet deciding whether she can pru- 

flesh of animals strangled, notwithstanding they were all 
enacted in an apostolic council. We shall presently have oc- 
casion to justify our conduct more fully in censuring the dis- 
cipline of the church concerning celibacy. 
* Vide Appendix ; note A. 



A SOURCE OF IMMORALITY. 49 

dently require this of them, I will remark that she 
ought not to deprive them of a right with which as 
men they are endowed by Heaven, but when they 
are unwilling to remain subject to her regulations, 
to divest them of her ministry as the eastern church 
does, and as the Roman church did till the 12th 
century. 

Let us return to our question. I shall no lon- 
ger dispute with the church respecting the imped- 
iment of orders ; because she has no control over 
the contract of matrimony, by inherent right. 
The civil authority can neither deprive a citizen 
of the right to marry, nor consent that he be de- 
prived of it ; its business is to regulate (and there- 
fore to maintain) that right. Hence, to decree 
that the priest may never marry, is absurd, is des- 
potic, is unjust. 

Because it is an injustice, because such an in- 
terference is opposed to the necessities of human- 
ity, because it imposes upon an entire class ex- 
traordinary sacrifices, not required by the Al- 
mighty, but only advised to those who are capable 
of them ; for these reasons such decrees have 
always been infringed upon, and from their infrac- 
tion, evils have resulted greater than the advanta- 
ges of a compliance with them. This will now 
be shown. 

§2. THE IMPEDIMENT OF ORDERS IS A SOURCE 
OF IMMORALITY IN THE PRIESTHOOD. 

It is a never-failing maxim among those who 

treat on the science of legislation, that no law 

should be enacted when there is a probability of its 

being constantly transgressed. Imprudent legisla- 

5 



50 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

tors, who have contemned this maxim, have gen- 
erally suffered the chagrin of seeing all their ef- 
forts rendered useless, and their subjects habitua- 
ted to despise other laws better founded in justice. 
When such a habit is once contracted immorality 
rises to its greatest height. Thenceforward there 
is neither order nor justice, each one regarding 
himself the arbiter of his own actions, and ready 
to be governed either by caprice or passion. It is 
true, subjects never perpetually despise or violate 
a law which does not exist in contradiction to the 
nature of things ; either in being opposed to pub- 
lic sentiment, the offspring of habit and education, 
or being impracticable as adapted to a few and 
not to the many on whom it is imposed ; or, in 
fine, until it has become insignificant from having 
no power to promote public happiness. Let these 
principles be applied to the law establishing the 
impediment of clerical orders, and it will be easy 
to discover, why, ever since its imposition, it has 
failed to be observed. 

In the early days of Christianity, when the fer- 
vor and enthusiasm which novelty inspires had 
taken possession of Christians ; when the exam- 
ple of apostolic men and the prodigies which ac- 
companied the establishment of religion, carried 
persons to a high degree of perfection, it is not 
wonderful that celibacy should be cultivated as a 
penance, and that individuals of every age and 
condition should devote themselves to its main- 
tenance. But the fervor of that period by degrees 
growing cold, ecclesiastics themselves began to 
decline into the common relaxation. From the 
beginning of the 4th century downward, several 



A SOURCE OF IMMORALITY. 51 

private councils pretended to confirm the law which 
till then had been followed only by custom and 
by choice of the individual ; that is, they required 
positive continence as a necessary condition to 
sacred orders dismissing from the clerical relation 
the priest who married. We will observe the re- 
sult of this prohibition. 

Alexander Natal observes, that notwithstanding 
the repeated determination of popes and councils, 
very few subjected themselves to celibacy, and 
that the more the observance of the law was in- 
sisted upon, the greater evils appeared.* In fact, 
the least attention bestowed on ecclesiastical his- 
tory can not fail to remark this truth. 

Pope Siricius in the latter part of the 4th cen- 
tury, complained bitterly of the abuse of the law, 
and of there being priests who were ignorant of 
the prohibition; so completely inefficient it had 
become. t 

St. Jerome declared that there were bishops 
who were no longer willing to ordain single men, 
on account of his assured fear of their inconti- 
nence.;): 

St. Epiphanius, of the same century, certifies 
that in many places, the incontinence of the cler- 
gy was countenanced in view of human weakness 
and for the want of those not subject to it.|| 

St. Ambrose confesses that the priests married 
in many places, and endeavor to justify their 
course on the ground of ancient custom. § 

* Hist, Eccl., Dis. 4 cent. t Ep. ad Him. 

J Advers. Vigil. || Haeres. 59. 

§ Quod eo non praeterii, quia in plerisque abditioribus locis, 
cum ministerium gererent, vel etiam Sacerdotium, filios sus- 
ceperuut ; et id tanquam uso vetero defendunt, &c. 



52 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

Innocent I., in the beginning of the 5th cen- 
tury, suffered married presbyters and deacons 
who had been ignorant of the decretal of Siricius, 
to be preserved in their orders. Thus we see to 
what extent it was forgotten within twenty years 
of its date.* 

Innumerable are the councils which endeavored 
to renew a law constantly falling into desuetude. 
They did not spare ecclesiastical penalties, and 
sometimes became so extravagant as to decree 
temporal punishments, some of which were man- 
ifestly and inexcusably unjust. Certain councils 
even decreed against the priest who should marry, 
the penalties of deposition, perpetual imprison- 
ment, fasting upon bread and water during life, 
and bloody stripes beside. f 

Others prohibited females from marrying priests, 
condemning such as were suspected of that inten- 
tion to have their hair cut off in disgrace, to be 
expatriated, and even to be sold and their price 
given to the poor.J 

Others excluded the sons of priests from ordin- 
ation and ecclesiastical benefices ; declaring them 
illegitimate ; incapable of holding property ; con- 
fiscating their goods to the churches where their 
fathers served ; condemning them to servitude, 
and even excommunicating the judges who should 
be disposed to set 'them free.|| To what greater 

* Epist. ad Eux, up. 

f Cone, de Toledo, can. 1., A.D. 597. Do. can. 4, 5, 6, 
A. D. 653. Germanic, can. 43. Worms, can. 9. 

J Cone, of Toledo, A. D. 653, can. 43. Augsburgh, can. 4. 
London, 1127, can. 7, &c. 

|| Cone, de Toledo, 653, can. 10. Pa via, A. D. 1012, can. 3, 
4. Burgo, 1031, can. S. Pictav., 1078, can. S. Clermont, 
1095 can. 11, &c. 



A SOURCE OF IMMORALITY. 53 

excesses could criminal legislation possibly ar- 
rive I 

But what was the consequence ? The evil con- 
tinued ; the scandal augmented, and all the reme- 
dies became inefficacious. From the time that 
persons who had vowed celibacy as an act of de- 
votion were admitted to ecclesiastical orders, fre- 
quent abuses occurred, which councils endeavored 
in vain to remedy. 

The council general of Nice, A. D. 325, was 
the first to prohibit priests the society of suspect- 
ed women. The evil arrived at such a pitch that 
at length sisters, and even mothers, were forbid- 
den to reside with them, on account of the females 
who would be found in their company.* 

Councils at last became wearied of their use- 
less attempts to restrain the incontinence of priests 
and of seeing their penalties frustrated, whether 
decreed against priests themselves, their concu- 
bines, or, in fine, their innocent children. They 
then proceeded to prohibit the faithful from hear- 
ing masses said by them, as though they had no 
means of suspending or dismissing them. Wri- 
ters give us a sad picture of the licentious life of 
those priests, while so many and various laws con- 
clusively prove not only the constant transgression 
of the requirement, but also the insufficiency of 
all the means applied to check it.f 

The last general council discovering no other 

* Concil de Turs., A. D., 566., can. 10 and 11, Maience, 
A.D. 888, 10. Consult Richard's Analysis of Councils,— St. 
Johan. Chrys., contr. hab. clar. 

t Consult Nicolas de Clemangis. — Do Estado da corrupcao, 
da Igreja, SfC. Pranto da Igreja por Alvaro Pelagio. — S. 
Pedro Damiao— contra os clerigos impudicos, &r. 
ft* 



54 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

remedy for the evil, contented itself in withhold- 
ing from the beneficed clergy a third part of their 
benefice on proof of the first offence ; the whole 
after the second, while the third was only made 
to incur suspension, not dismissal. 

Surely if rigorous and even unjust and barba- 
rous penalties had been unable to put down con- 
cubinage, how, possibly, could such means 1 In 
fine, the same practice obtained anciently which 
is current now. The ecclesiastic was no longer 
punished unless some enemy chose to resuscitate 
against him a law which has suffered as many 
ages of neglect as it has enjoyed of existence. 

Prompt and severe chastisements may render 
the priest more cautious, and public opinion may 
oppose a barrier to the scandal, but what is the 
result 1 Cases of scandal are less frequent, but 
continence is not as a consequence more sure. 
Under the shade of mystery, crimes become great- 
er, although self-preservation ensures their con- 
cealment.* 

It should be observed that incontinence is by no 
means a vice peculiar to ecclesiastics, but doubt- 
less is provoked by unnatural restraint. In the 
third and fourth centuries, during the rage of 
anti-matrimonial principles, we behold a most 
gloomy picture drawn by St. Jerome and Cyprian 
even of virgins themselves. 

* When we speak of abolishing clerical celibacy, many 
priests oppose it, perhaps, through a mistaken idea of self- 
respect, or because they are apprehensive of a failure in the 
eflort ; but let it once be realized and immense numbers 
would avail themselves of the privilege. This was the case 
in France, and also in England, when, in 1548, parliament 
revoked the laws prohibiting the marriage of priests. Out of 
16,000, 12,000 married within 6 years, while the reign of Ed- 
ward V. continued. V. Flenry and Hist, da Rev. Franopza. 



A SOURCE OF IMMORALITY. 55 

In view of it, the latter most worthy father, a light 
of the church, even went so far as to practice what 
at the present day would appear reprehensible to the 
veriest idiot ; perhaps he was excusable in view 
of the spirit of the age to which he yielded.* 

Some trained up in the rigor of monastic life, 
or imbued with ascetic notions, contemplated the 
universal prevalence of celibacy ! Dazzled by 
the splendor of the virtues of certain individuals 
who had vowed celibacy, little did they regard the 
frequent calamities into which others were plunged 
in the unequal struggle between the weakness of 
human nature and the supremacy of an unnatural 
law. How different was the conduct of Paul, 
whom they could not condescend to imitate ! That 
inspired apostle, writing to Timothy respecting a 
case in point, concludes by saying : " I will, 
therefore, that the younger women marry, bear 
children, guide the house, give none occasion to 
the adversary to speak reproachfully. For some 
are already turned aside after Satan." Prudent in 
his zeal, he did not insist that widows should 
remain unmarried, and thus applied to the evil its 
proper remedy. f 

In view of what has been said, let the compar- 
ison be made between the advantages arising from 
obedience to the law and the evils resulting from 

* Epist. ad. Pomp. Inspiciantur interim Virgines ab obstet- 
ricibus diligenter — do habit. Virg. What is more notable is, 
that such abuses existed in the second century, as may be 
seen in Tertul. de vel. Virg. ad fin. where, among other things, 
the following may be read : Facillime conciphmt et felicis- 
sime pariuht hujusmodi Virgines : haec admittit coacta et 
invita Virginitas. Vide 5. Jcron. epist ad Eustoch. cap. 5. 
v. 11-13. 

f V. Pereira's Note. 



56 CLERICAL CELIBACY 

its transgression, and it will be easy to decide 
whether it is best to follow St. Paul or those 
fathers and councils who have so imprudently 
insisted upon advising, promoting, and decreeing 
celibacy.* 

It is now proved, that from the moment clerical 
celibacy was instituted, the law requiring it has 
been violated ; and it has been violated because 
legislators exacted more than the Divine Founder 
of religion required. He was contented with 
merely advising entire continence, and the apostle 
very plainly remarked, that in exalting its merits 
he wished to ensnare no one.f 

Pafnucius, the octagenarian bishop who had 
already lost an eye for the faith of Christ, and 
whose life was spotless, in the first general council 
opposed the projected law of celibacy, showing 
that such an excess of rigor would do the church 
great injury, and also that all were not capable oj 
the restraint.^ 

Bergier commends the wisdom of this prelate, 
and the wisdom of the council in listening to it ; 
since to have determined on celibacy then, would 
have been to approbate the sect of Eucratists, and 
other heretics who condemned matrimony. § 

Fleury, who is more impartial, and incompara- 
tively more judicious, admires the wisdom of the 
council in not establishing a law which would, in the 
nature of things, be violated. ,|| 

* St. Clement, Strom. 3, recommends neither to depress 
matrimony nor imprudently exalt celibacy, 
t 1 Ep. ad Corinth, 7, 3d. 
X Socrates a Sozom, Hist. Eccl. 
ti Art. Celib. Diction. Theologique. 
\\ Hist. Eccl. 4 cent. 



A SOURCE OF IMMORALITY. 57 

Alexander Natal maintains that the Council of 
Thebes, very far from favoring laxity of morals , on 
the contrary, by applying the remedy to inconti- 
nence, promoted the honor and the welfare of the 
church.* It is needless to cite more authorities to 
prove what the experience of the church for 
fifteen centuries has sufficiently demonstrated. 
Thus an imprudently established law, accustoming 
subjects to disobedience and contempt of authority, 
introduces licentiousness. 

But if the law requiring celibacy has this incon- 
venience in common with other impolitic laws, it 
has, besides, a direct tendency to demoralization 
of a still more important bearing, as I will proceed 
to show. 

Before the priest — -especially the cure of souls — 
from the unhappy moment in which he yields to 
illicit inclinations, two roads are opened leading to 
the very abyss of ruin, one of which he will inevita- 
bly follow — that of apostacy, or that of aggravated 
wickedness. If he continues to believe in religion, 
he finds himself arraigned as a criminal by the 
principles he professes, and convicted of nefarious 
sacrilege every time he exercises a ministry pol- 
luted with such a crime. f Shame or interest in 
the beginning overcome remorse, and by degrees 
habit is confirmed ; thus, in a short time the 
transgression of so many and such sacred laws 
capacitate him for any crime. Hence the adage, 
" to him that is lost, every thing is gain." % 

But, if he can not resist remorse, he resorts to 

* Disertas. ao 4, Seculo da Ilistoria. 

t Vide Appendix B. 

\ A hum perdido, tudo faz conta. 



58 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

deism, and organizes a religion to suit his inclina- 
tions ; or, perhaps, to the greater injury of himself 
and society, he lapses into the dark and doubtful 
system of atheism or materialism, and under the 
mask of hypocrisy continues to receive the conve- 
niences and emoluments offered him by the sacred 
ministry of religion. I appeal to experience. 
Let the testimony of impartial observers be re- 
garded. 

The priest who is given to monied speculations 
or to gambling, who is negligent, fretful, ambitious, 
proud, or avaricious, finds a thousand pretexts 
which seem to lessen his guilt and to palliate 
conscience ; he may be self-deceived, and in the 
supposition of good faith may still exercise his 
ministry with profit to the faithful (!). This the 
incontinent priest can not do. Christian morality 
teaches him that in this class of transgressions 
there is no insignificance ; every act is great, is 
mortal sin. Weakness and passion may cause his 
will to yield, but they can not seduce his reason, 
while he does not cast off the religious principles 
of his profession. Hence incontinence extends 
and communicates vice to all his actions, which 
thus become necessarily corrupted. For this 
reason it will be exceedingly difficult to find an 
incontinent priest who is not, in other respects, 
wicked. Here also is the reason why the greater 
share of impartial historians bestow so much praise 
on the Greek and Protestant clergy, when they 
compare their morality with that of Catholic priests 
in general.* 

* St. Peter Damian says, that when he went to the bishopric 
of Turin he found the ecclesiastics of that place very upright 
and well-instructed — satis honesti et decenter instructi — but 



PUELIC IMMORALITY. 59 

§3. IMMORALITY IN THE PRIEST HAS A PECULIAR 
TENDENCY TOWARD PUBLIC IMMORALITY. 

Being certain that a forced celibacy is the origin 
and principal cause of the immorality of the clergy, 
it becomes us now to observe, that this conduces 
in an especial manner toward immorality in 
society at large. 

Religion consists of two parts : speculative and 
practical. The first relates to faith, the second 
to duty. Now, inasmuch as public morality is 
closely allied to religion, and in fact an essential 
part of it, and inasmuch as the priests are the 
administrators of it, being charged by the sacred- 
ness of their office with the reform of morals, 
and for this purpose nearly all receiving public 
salary and emoluments ; why do not those results 
appear which ought to be expected ? It is because 
their conduct is in contradiction with their opin- 
ions ; their examples are not conformable to their 
precepts, and their words are destitute of unction 
and of life ; because their ministry is discharged 
in a formal and idle manner ; and because their 
views and purposes do not accord with the objects 
and institutions of religion. 

The parish priest baptizes, preaches, and hears 
confessions, but how does he discharge those 
important offices ? A vain outside, often even 
divested of decency, is what for the most part 
offers itself to the eyes of the serious observer. 

learning that they were married by permission of Conibertus 
their bishop, the light became extinguished in darkness, and 
his joy was turned into sorrow. So great is the power of 
prejudice ; but the truth is evident to any one wishing to see 
it. Dissert, 2, opus. 18. 



60 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

And why does this happen ? Because his con- 
science condemns all his actions, and condemns 
them because they are poisoned by that radical 
vice, incontinence. Thus the sacred ministry is 
not only rendered useless, but the priest, going on 
by degrees to discredit and render suspected the 
morality he teaches, augments the number of 
transgressors. 

Certain oft-repeated objections are commonly 
opposed to these arguments : 1 . That it is not 
incontinence which renders a priest vicious. 2. 
That if the transgression of a law was a sufficient 
reason for its revocation, then no law, however 
just, could be preserved. Miserable objections 
these, because 1. We have already shown that 
although ecclesiastics are subject to many vices, 
nevertheless the one in question is their easily 
besetting sin, and has a necessary tendency to 
demoralize both priest and people. 2. Because it 
is an incontestable truth, that when a law, instead 
of promoting its contemplated object,, on the con- 
trary goes to defeat that object, it is for that reason 
unfounded and unworthy to continue in force. 

Now, this truth is applicable to the law of celib- 
acy and others like it, but not to those necessary 
laws which have for their sole object the protection 
of the natural rights of men. 

Independent of any legislation, robbery, murder, 
calumny, and treason, will always be wrong ; 
hence the legislator should never cease to impose 
penalties upon such delinquencies. They are 
always evil ; there is no case in which they can 
be tolerated. This is not the case with marriage, 
which is only wrong because the law makes it so,. 



THE LAW IS USELESS. 61 

and since this law, very far from conducting priests 
to perfection, on the contrary leads the greater 
part of them to perdition, policy and justice require 
the legislator to revoke it. 

We grant that the priest may be a wicked man ; 
he may trample upon the most sacred laws because 
he is a man ; although married, he may be an adul- 
terer or a debauchee ; but in either of these cases 
let him be corrected with all the severity of law, 
and if incorrigible, dismissed from his high voca- 
tion. But if his difficulty, the origin of his 
misfortune, is a propensity to incontinence, the 
only remedy is matrimony. That remedy is prop- 
er ; it may not be infallible. * 

But let us suppose that the law requiring celib- 
acy is just, and not calculated to occasion immo- 
rality, still it is useless, as we now proceed to show. 

§4. THE LAW REQUIRING CELIBACY IS USELESS. 

No person in the general, being obliged to mar- 
ry, celibacy on the other hand being in all respects 
a less expensive state of life, we everywhere find, 
and at all times, a great number attached to it, of 
both sexes, and especially among Catholics, many 
living chastely, independent of law requiring them 
to do so. 

The calculation of advantages of a temporal 
kind to some, and spiritual to others, is the com- 
pass which guides their choice in embracing this 
state, and although not prohibited from contracting 
matrimony they remain single until new views of 
temporal or spiritual happiness incline them to a 
different choice. All know the difficulty a man 
* lEp.adCor. cap. 7, v. 2. 
6 



bS CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

will have in contenting himself in a state which 
seems contrary to his nature, and hence is forced 
upon him. 

Now if these things are so, what is the advan- 
tage of the law of qelibacy ? Nothing whatever. 
Those who are continent with the law would be 
without it, or more correctly speaking, the number 
of continent persons would be greater in absence 
of the law. If indeed it be credible that a single 
individual remains in absolute continence in virtue 
of the law, who would not without it, it may also 
be affirmed that he who is thus made to strive 
with nature and to endeavor to overcome his in- 
clination (because in the supposition, he is inclined 
to matrimony) loses the best moments of his life 
in a combat where no victory is to be gained ; 
moments which otherwise would be employed in 
the discharge of important duties which nature 
and religion enjoin. For the merit of continence 
does not consist in the privation of enjoyment, but 
in an appropriate disposition, which through it is 
acquired, in view of more important ends. Thus 
teaches St. Paul.* 

Now, since the legislator ought not to circum- 
scribe or restrain uselessly the liberty of subjects, 
it is evident that the law ought to be abolished 
from the very fact that it is useless. 

§5. ITS ABROGATION IS THE DESIRE OF PRU- 
DENT MEN. 

The necessity of revoking a law enjoining a 
forced celibacy, has been seen by many enlight- 
ened minds, and ardently desired by good men, 
* 1 Ep. ad Corinth, c. 7, v. 32. 



ITS ABROGATION DESIRED. 63 

who could not look with indifference upon the 
misfortunes of their fellow-beings. It has also 
been urgently insisted upon by monarchs, who, 
ignorant of their rights or slaves of the supersti- 
tion of their times, have had recourse to an au- 
thority which then had the power to impose and 
revoke at will any impediment to matrimony. 

In the general Council of Constance, the Em- 
peror Sigismund earnestly besought that clerical 
celibacy might be abolished. 

At the Councils of Pisa and Basil, similar 
solicitations were made, but were neutralized by 
political considerations.* 

At the Council of Trent, the almost unanimous 
desire of Catholic princes was expressed in favor 
of the same object. 

The Duke of Bavaria, on that occasion, demon- 
strated the necessity of the measure with an ad- 
mirable energy, explaining the political and moral 
reasons on which it was founded. Beside other 
things, he remarked as follows : " That among 50 
priests there would scarcely be found one who 
did not live in a state of notorious concubinage. 
That not only priests but laymen required the abo- 
lition of the law, and also patrons of churches, 
who had become unwilling to grant benefices ex- 
cept to married men. That it was better to abro- 
gate the law than to open the door to an impure 
celibacy. That it was an absurdity to refuse 
married men an entrance into orders, and yet to 
tolerate those who lived in fornication. That, in 
fine, if it was determined to bind priests to abso- 

* Lanfani. Hist, de Cone, de Base. 



64 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

lute continence, they must only ordain old men."* 
Such was more or less the language of other 
Catholic princes. 

Cardinal Zaburela in the Council of Constance, 
the Bishop of Salsburgh and others in their syn- 
ods, Cardinal Lorena at Trent, and the Archbishop 
of Granada, whose discourse is said to be still 
preserved in the Jesuits library of that city, made 
great efforts toward revoking the regulation, and 
the Archbishop of Praga and the Bishop of the 
five churches determined to oppose the vote taken, 
but were dissuaded. f 

Pius II., before his elevation to the papal chair 
regarded the prohibition of matrimony to priests 
as the fruitful source of condemnation to great 
numbers who otherwise would be saved in the 
use of lawful marriage 4 

Polidorus Virgilius maintained that there was 
no institution which had done more to bring dis- 
grace upon the ecclesiastical office, which had 

* Fleury Hist. Eccl. 

t Fleury — Hernando de Avila — Curayer — Vargas and others. 

Although the Fathers of the Council of Trent well under- 
stood that celibacy as a matter of discipline might be dispen- 
sed with, as Pius V. said in his interview with Amulius the 
embassador of Venice, yet they thought it most prudent not 
to take that step at a time when heretics renounced vows of 
celibacy as unworthy of God and opposed to nature, which 
we do not assert, when such vows are voluntary. Experi- 
ence, however, has shown how much more prudent it would 
be to shut the mouths of heretics and libertines by granting 
priests at once the on]y remedy to incontinence, and providing 
for their happiness in a natural and decisive manner ! It is 
probable that a council in the 19th century would act very 
differently, being removed from the contentions which pre- 
vailed at that period, and having before their eyes the unal- 
tered picture of the frailty of their priests. 

I AnnallO., L. 11. 



ITS ABROGATION DESIRED. 65 

caused greater evils to religion or greater grief to 
good men,* 

Having now demonstrated the necessity of abol- 
ishing celibacy as a requisite to clerical orders, so 
that a priest may lawfully marry, it still remains 
to satisfy the fearful consciences of those persons 
who without reflecting themselves, and sustained 
only by the prejudice and false doctrine of others, 
who seize upon their credulity to alarm their fears 
and prejudice them against the truth, think that 
the celibacy of priests is an order of heaven and 
that no human power has a right to revoke it. 

I shall therefore prove from the history of the 
church and the authority of credited authors, that 
clerical celibacy is neither a divine nor apostolic 
institution ; that it originated about the commence- 
ment of the 4th century ; that it did not become 
a regulation of discipline in the western church 
until after the 1 2th century, and that the eastern 
church up to the present has permitted her minis- 
ters to marry without the Latin church ever daring 
to censure the practice, while, on the contrary, 
the latter has even authorised and permitted it 
to those who in modern times have become incor- 
porated with her. 

* Detrer. invent.^ L. 5., c. 4. I know that many good men 
have defended the celibate, but after all, they can prove nothing 
but the excellence of chastity and the antiquity of the law 
we are discussing, which are granted at once. They, how- 
ever, are very cautious about saying a word upon the good 
and evil which have constantly resulted from the Jaw which 
has always been in disuse as impracticable. This is our 
task. We are showing the real origin of the institution, and 
its consequences, but we do not deny that lie who has the 
gift of continence may be more happy than the married man. 
St. Paul teaches this, experience sustains it, and that is 
sufficient. 

6* 



66 CLERICAL CELIBACY 

§6. CLERICAL CELIBACY IS NOT A DIVINE IN- 
STITUTION. 

If we look at the gospel, not a word is found 
from which it can be inferred, I do not say clearly, 
but even with the most forced construction, that 
Christ enjoined celibacy upon his ministers, or 
even recommended it to them. The only text 
on which such a construction is attempted, is this : 
" If any man come to me and hate not his father 
and mother, and wife and children, and brethren 
and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he can not 
be my disciple."* 

I need not tire the reader with the refutation of 
any attempt to found the precept of celibacy on 
this passage. Every Christian knows how much 
he ought to respect and love both father and 
mother, and yet God approves that both be forsa- 
ken that he may cleave to his wife ; and that 
Christ by those words designed to teach nothing 
more than the necessity of being resolved to for- 
sake things even the most dear, when they shall 
become an obstacle to salvation. 

Nor is it the Christian merely who ought to 
profess these principles. The good citizen ought 
not to hesitate in abandoning these relatives, or 
even life itself, when his country demands such a 
sacrifice. This is very evident. The contrary 
would be absurd and even impious, and a resort 
to such texts for such a cause, is the greatest 
proof of its unreasonableness. 

The gospel speaks a thousand times of virgins, 
but never advises one to perpetuate her celibacy. 
* St. Luc, cap. 14, v. 26. 



NOT AN APOSTOLIC INSTITUTION. 67 

When Christ remarked that many become 
eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake, he was 
evidently replying to his disciples, who thought 
the condition of that man hard who was separated 
from his wife, an adultress, without power to 
marry again ; and designed to show that there are 
many circumstances in which man is required to 
deny himself for the sake of gaining heaven. 

But we leave this topic. The church has de- 
cided, founding her .position on the doctrines of 
St. Paul ; and the practice of the early Christians 
also indicates that celibacy is a more perfect state, 
and hence preferable to matrimony, as giving the 
individual more liberty to apply himself to the 
things of the kingdom of God. 

But because celibacy is a more perfect state, it 
does not follow that it is necessary and indispen- 
sable to the priest. Poverty is also a state very 
highly commended in the gospel, but was it en- 
joined absolutely on clergymen ? Why is this 
left open to choice or circumstance, and not the 
former ? One thing is certain, neither one nor the 
other were insisted on by Christ himself as es- 
sential to his ministers. 

§7. CLERICAL CELIBACY IS NOT AN APOSTOLIC 
INSTITUTION. 

St. Paul, the only one of the apostles who treats 
ex professo, upon the character required in deacons, 
presbyters, or bishops, says : " A bishop must be 
blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, so- 
ber, of good behavior,"* &c; and when he rec- 
ommends Timothy to " lay hands suddenly on no 

* 1 Ep. aTimoth. cap. 3, v. 2. 



68 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

man, neither be a partaker of other men's sins," 
he concludes by saying, "keep thyself pure." 

From these and other passages, we may learn, 
since St. Paul recommends that the bishop and 
deacon be the husband of one wife,* that the con- 
tinence and chastity required of them is consistent 
with matrimony ; since it is beyond doubt that 
improprieties often exist in connexion with that 
state, and that excesses occur reproved by reason 
and condemned by revelation. 

St. Paul indeed teaches this in his first letter to 
the Corinthians, and St. Clement of Alexandria 
describes what continence is among the married. f 
Pafnucius very plainly says that the conjugal act 
is chastity.^ St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. 
John Chrysostom, and others, prove that chastity 
may be preserved in matrimony, and this is the 
language of the church herself. || 

Such also were the sentiments of Christian an- 
tiquity ; for although numberless canons were de- 
creed, prohibiting marriage to priests, founded on 
other reasons, yet never was any mention made 
of the precepts of St. Paul, of which, had they 

* It is generally known that among the Jews polygamy was 
permitted, and concubinage was tolerated among the Romans, 
and that among both it was permitted to divorce wives and 
marry others, while the first were yet living. It was doubt- 
less with reference to these facts that St. Paul requires the 
minister to be the husband of one wife. 

t Eum qui uxorem ducit, pro liberorum procatione exercere 
oportet continentiam. ut nesuamquidem, concupiscat uxorem, 
quam debet diligere, honestate et moderate voluntato operam 
dans liberis, &c. Str. 3. 

t Congressum viri cum uxore iegitima castitatem esse ad- 
serens, &c. Selvagio, Lib. 1, Paf. 

|| Homil. 26 in Math. Sicut crudelis et iniquus est, qui cas- 
tam dimittit uxorem, &e. Liv de bou. conj. 



ITS HISTORY. 69 

existed, those legislators who were so zealous to 
enjoin clerical celibacy as an apostolic institution, 
would have gladly availed themselves.* 

Having now demonstrated that neither Christ 
nor his apostles established .this institution, nor in- 
deed advised Christian ministers invariably to fol- 
low such a state of life, I pass to consider its ac- 
tual origin and progress.! 

§8. HISTORY OF CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

Documents are rare respecting this subject, 
until subsequent to the third century. This, how- 
ever, ought to be declared, that while no labor has 
been spared to discover all that existed, the only 
ones that appear, are in favor of the liberty then 
enjoyed by ministers, of marrying and living as 
husbands with their wives. 

St. Ignatius, a disciple of the apostles, rebukes 
and even threatens with condemnation him who 
by a profession of chastity should think himself 
greater than a bishop .J From this passage it is 
naturally inferred that such presumption on the 
part of the bachelor was founded on the idea that 
on account of professing a state of perfection he 
thought himself for that reason superior even to a 

* A council held at Rome by Gregory VII., 1074, was the 
first which ever assumed to explain the words of St. Paul in 
the sense in which they are now held by our opponents. 

t This is according to the explanation of the very authors 
who defend the celibate. Pcrpetua lex continentiae nee a 
Christo nee ab apostolis sacris ministris imposita fuit. Natal. 
Alexan. Prop. 3. Diss, ad 4 cent. 

Nullo autem jure Divino, nee naturali nee positivo earn cler- 
icis praeceptam esse satis certum est. Riger Tom 3, Tit. 3. 

t Si gloriatur, periit. Ktsi se maioram Episcopo censet, in- 
ternet. Ad. Poly. No. 5. 



70 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

bishop, who led an ordinary life ; which is to say, 
that of a married man. 

St. Clement, of Alexandria, that father who 
was acquainted with the immediate disciples of 
the apostles ; that celebrated individual who, on 
account of his erudition both sacred and profane, 
was selected to preside over the most distinguished 
religious school then in existence, is decided on 
this subject. 

His authority is much greater on this subject 
since he treats of it ex professo. He had two 
sorts of adversaries to contend with ; some who 
detested matrimony and others who held all sorts 
of debauchery to be lawful. When he contended 
with the latter, who pretended to find authority in 
some misinterpreted expression of St. Nicolas, 
one of the seven deacons in the days of the apos- 
tles, he asserted that Nicolas had nothing to do 
with any other female than his own wife, to whom he 
was married. This proves the use of matrimony 
among priests, and by whom ? By St. Nicolas 
himself. 

When he combated the enemies of matrimony, 
who alleged the example of Jesus Christ, who 
never married, he replied, that the Savior had no 
need of a helpmate, that it was not his object 
during his sojourn on earth to train up children, 
but that the church was his bride. 

He attacked his adversaries with the example 
of St. Peter and St. Philip, who had wives and 
children. No one will attribute to Clement of 
Alexandria the unskilfulness and absurdity of 
attempting to confute heretics with facts relating 
to those individuals, while yet Pagans or mere 



ITS HISTORY. 71 

Jews ; hence we must suppose him acquainted 
with the fact that those apostles had children after 
their call to the apostolic office.* This is by no 
means improbable, since, from the gospel itself we 
learn that the disciples frequently absented them- 
selves from the company of their divine master, 
and it is natural to suppose that this time was 
spent in their several families. 

He also confounds the heretics with the doctrine 
of St. Paul, who admits married men even to the 
episcopacy, in case they properly conduct them- 
selves in conjugal life, and adds still more, that in 
the procreation of children they will be saved. f 
Whoever gives credence to this most worthy 
authority, will necessarily be convinced that up to 
his time no such prohibition existed, but on the 
contrary, that Christian ministers enjoyed full 
liberty to marry or not. This he plainly asserts. 

This father, in his other works, the Pedagogue, 
and the True Gnostic, proposes maxims of the 
purest virtue, and those which still remain like a 
fountain of pure morality ; hence he can in no 
way be suspected of laxity of views. 

Tertulian, who went to such an excess as to 
condemn first marriages, as embracing the elements 
of fornication, and even presumes to censure 
St. Paul for permitting second marriages, even then 
did not make use of the great argument against 
the marriage of priests. It can hardly be possible 
that he would have abandoned that strong support 
to his paradox if such a practice had been in 
existence. 

* Stromat. 3. 

t Ibidem. Servabitur autem per filiorum procrationem. 
Sed unusquisque nostrum habet, si velit, potestatem ducendi 
legiiimam uxorem in primis, inquam, nuptiis. 



72 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

When he exhorted the people to chastity, he 
reminded them that there were many examples 
of it among the clergy.* This implies, of course, 
that marriage was common among them. Ori- 
gen, who carried continence to the extreme of 
literally making himself a eunuch, scarcely distin- 
guishing between the sacrifices of the old and new 
law, gives his opinion, that "if in the former, 
priests ought to abstain from the use of matrimony 
when they were about to sacrifice, that in the lat- 
ter also, he who would, in an acceptable manner, 
offer sacrifices, should dedicate himself to per- 
petual chastity." This was merely his opinion — 
videtur mihi. He moreover confesses that he 
" knows not how to explain the reason why the 
church admits the husband of one wife to be a 
bishop, when, perhaps, he may lead a less conti- 
nent life than the husband of two." f 

Thus much we learn of the times in which he 
lived. From the institution of Christianity celib- 
acy was held in high repute, and great numbers 
devoted themselves to it. Athenagorus, St. Justin, 
Minucius, Felix, and others, state this distinctly. 
Ministers chosen from among the heads of fami- 
lies, as St. Paul recommended ; men of age, as 
the name presbyter signifies, gave the edifying 
example of every species of virtue. When, how- 
ever, a man who had vowed chastity for the sake 
of spiritual profit, entered the ministry and then 
married, such a step would be looked upon with a 
natural surprise, very similar to what occurs 
among us when a young lady leaves &recolhimento\ 

* Lib. de Exort. Cast. cap. 5 et 13. 

f Rom. 23 in Num. Certum est, quae impeditur &c. 

X A species of nunnery, where females are educated, 



ITS HISTORY. 73 

in order to marry, or when a devout monk secular- 
izes himself; but since they merely descend from 
a certain degree of perfection to the ordinary state 
of life, they commit no crime although the step 
they take is calculated to produce astonishment, 
and perhaps abhorrence, in society. This, we 
may conjecture, began to take place toward the 
end of the third century. 

The first fact which history records relative to 
the law of celibacy, relates to Pinitus, bishop of 
Gnosa, who in A. D. 171 contemplated enforcing 
it ; but St. Dyonisius, bishop of Corinth, that wise 
and zealous prelate, who watched over neighboring 
dioceses as well as his own, wrote to him, exhorting 
him not to impose a heavy burden on his brethren, 
but to have regard to the common weakness of men * 

The year 300 is 4 the first in which a council 
forbade the use of matrimony to married priests. f 
In 315, the Council of Neocesarea, in the first 
canon, determined the deposition of the minister 
who should marry ; and in canon eight, orders him 
to be suspended who should have intercourse with 
his own wife, as though she were an adulteress. 

In 319, by the Council of Ancyra, it was still 
granted to deacons to marry after their ordination, 
if in the act of ordination they protested that they 
so desired. 

In A. D. 325 the first general council was held 
at Nice. Some one was present to whom it 
occurred to bring into force the law of celibacy, 

with the privilege of leaving when they or their friends 
desire ; and where the veil is not taken, although some remain 
for life.— [Trans. 

* Euseb. Hist. Keel. lib. 4, cap. 23. 

f Cone, dc Elvira, c. 33. Plaeuit in totum, &c. 
7 



74 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

but the advice of Pafnucius was followed. That 
holy prelate, among other things, remarked — that 
the council ought to be content with the ancient 
custom of those priests remaining single who were 
ordained in that state.* That council consequently 
left things as it found them ; that is, they suffered 
each individual to be governed by his own choice. 
Writers of this century, notwithstanding they 
appear to be considerably influenced by the spirit 
of celibacy, yet confess that there was either no 
law enjoining it, or that, at least, it was not general 
in the church. 

St. Athanasius, in his letter to Draconcius, ob- 
served, that there were many bishops single, and 
many monks who had children ; whence it is inferred 
that in either state persons would consult their 
inclinations. This proves liberty, not law. 

St. Bazil, at the end of the same century, ob- 
serves respecting professed continence, that it was 
not then common, except among monks, who ap- 
peared to have tacitly embraced it. 

Eusebius says that the gospel does not prohibit 
matrimony, and that what St. Paul desired was, that 
a bishop should only have married once, after the 
example of Noe, &-c. He adds that it is proper, 
nevertheless, for those who are elevated to the 
priesthood to abstain from familiarity with their 
wives. This is merely his opinion — decet — he 
refers to no law.f 

Socrates, contemporary to many of the fathers 
present at the Council of Nice, relates that in his 
time there was no general law requiring celibacy, 

* Choasi. Hist. Eccl. 4 cent, 
t Demonstr. lib. 1, cap. 9. 



ITS HISTORY. 75 

although it was common through choice. He 
mentions several places where the bishops still 
had children.* 

St. Jerome himself, who went to the extreme of 
monastic austerity, both in sentiment and practice, 
who sometimes needs to be defended from the 
imputation of having condemned matrimony, even 
he, when contending with Yigilancius, who denied 
the merit of continence, only made mention of the 
example or custom of the churches of Antioch, 
Egypt, and Rome, which selected for their minis- 
ters either single men, or those married men who 
abandoned conjugal life. This proves that other 
churches had a different discipline. t 

The council of Carthage, A. D. 348, very far 
from establishing the precept of celibacy, merely 
commands those ministers who do not wish to 
marry, but who prefer the perfection of continence, 
to avoid residing in company with females not of 
their kindred, as the General Council of Nice had 
already determined. J 

St^Ambrose simply says, " that when married 
men were admitted to the sacred ministry, it was 
hoped they would withdraw themselves from their 
wives ;" and referring to single men, he confesses 
that they were not obliged to be ordained such.§ 
St. Cyril had previously remarked, that those who 
desired to fulfil worthily, that is, in the most per- 
fect manner, their ministry, lived in celibacy.^ To 
this we cheerfully assent, on condition, however, 
that the celibacy be chaste and real. 

* Lib. 5, cap. 22. Hist. Eccl. 

t Jerom. adv. Vig. f Canon 3. 

§ Non quo exsortem cxcludat conjugis, non hoc supra legem 
praecepti est, sed ut conjugali castimonia ferret ablutionis 
suaegratiam. |j Catechis. 12. 



76 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

It appears that in some places men carried con- 
tinence to such an excess as to abandon even their 
own wives, interpreting the scriptures literally, or 
rather materially, as was done afterward, which 
circumstance gave rise to the sixth apostolic 
canon, by which deposition and excommunication 
are denounced against him who should abandon his 
wife under the pretext of religion, and to the fifty- 
first canon, which commands that priest to be 
deposed who shall abstain from matrimony, not 
through a spirit of mortification, but on the ground 
that it is wicked* 

Granting to critics that the apostolic canons, as 
well as the apostolic constitutions, are a compen- 
dium of the discipline most common in the fourth, 
and fifth centuries ; yet it is important to observe 
the manner in which the twenty-seventh canon 
and the 17th chapter of the sixth book are ex- 
pressed. From those parts, it is manifest that the 
prohibition of matrimony to priests was a new 
law, and not the repetition of an old one.f 

Variety of discipline on this point could scarcely 
be greater. In one part priests were married ; in 

* A thousand contortions have been applied to these canons, 
in order to wrest from them their force ; but a comparison of 
them with the apostolic constitutions and the Council of Trullo, 
will show that we have given their true meaning. Can. 6. 
Episcopus aut Presbyter uxorem propriam nequaquam sub 
obtenter religionis abjiciat, &c. Vide etiam can. 51. 

t Can. 27. Innuptis autem, qui ad Clerum provecti sunt 
praecipimus, ut, si voluerint uxores accipiant, sed Lectores 
Cantoresque tantumodo. 

Const, ap. Lib. 6, cap. 17. In Episc. a Diac. constitui prce- 
cipimus viros unius matrimonii, sive vivant eorum uxores sive 
obierint : non licere autem illis post ordinationem, si uxores 
non habent, matrimonium contrahere ; aut si uxores habeant ? 
cum aliis copulari sed contentos esse ea, quam habentes, ad 
ordinationem venerunt. 



ITS HISTORY. 77 

another, only deacons ; and in a third, only readers 
and singers. In some places, married men were 
prohibited the conjugal life ; and in others, those 
who abandoned their wives were punished. Yet 
the number of nuns and monks, on the whole, 
increasing, and the greater proportion of bishops 
being selected from among the latter, or at least 
from among those who professed an ascetic life, it 
was natural that the people should, by degrees, 
begin to look with indifference upon married priests, 
as though they led a life of inferior sanctity to that 
of those who professed the perfection of conti- 
nence.* This disposition being fostered, until it 
grew into a species of contempt for those who did 
not exhibit that show of perfection, many were at 
length found who were unwilling to witness the 
celebration of mass by married priests. Some 
even affirmed that the wives of priests could not 
be saved. t 

The professors of continence insulted their 
brethren who were married, so that the Council of 
Gangres, in 380, had occasion to anathematize 
them, and declare that although it did not disap- 
prove of continence, it condemned the arrogance 
of those who, under pretext of it, exalted them- 
selves above others who adopted a simple and 
common mode of life .J 

* Such is the power of prejudice, that even among us a large 
proportion of the common people would have less averson to 
hear mass and receive the sacraments from a priest living in 
notorious concubinage, than from one who was married, but 
led an acknowledgedly virtuous life. So greatly does the 
pretence of perfection impose upon the ignorant. We ought, 
however, to desire truth and not imposture. 

f Cone de Gang. can. 4. Can. 1, seg. Grat. Dist. 30, can. 12 
S. Greg. Nan. Orat. 40, S. Joh. Chrysos. Ep. ad Tit. 

| Canon 21. 

7# 



78 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

It was the Latin church that insisted most upon 
the celibacy of the clergy, but we have already 
had occasion to observe to what extent the law 
was despised and even forgotten, in its very origin, 
and at the places where it was decreed. In 390 
the Council of Carthage established it again, as 
though it were new.* 

The Council of Toledo, assembled from all 
Spain in 400, did not then presume to chastise those 
clergymen who were married previous to the pre- 
ceding council, but contented itself with deter- 
mining that they should not be promoted to the 
higher orders. The same determination is met 
with in the Council of Turin, composed of the 
bishops of Gaul and Italy. 

In 402, a council at Rome obliged (can. 3) 
priests and deacons to remain in celibacy, giving 
no other reason than that they were required to 
offer sacrifice and to baptize ; not basing the regu- 
lation upon anterior laws, but upon the example of 
priests in the Levitical law. 

In the Council of Telipta, 418, canon 4, celibacy 
was ordained for bishops, priests, and deacons, as 
though for the first time, and without any penalty 
for disobedience. 

That of Orange, 441, canon 22, revoked the 
regulation of the Council of Ancyra, which obliged 
deacons to vow chastity at their ordination, and in 
canon 4, determined that those hitherto ordained 
might be promoted to the superior orders, notwith- 
standing their conjugal life. 

The Council of Tyre in 461, canon 1, exhorted 
priests to a life of continence, that they might 

* Can. 2. 



ITS HISTORY. 79 

better apply themselves to prayer, &c, but mod- 
erated the rigor of previous canons. 

That of Agda, 506, in the first and second can- 
ons, orders merely to suspend, without deposition, 
those priests who were married for the second 
time, or married to widows. That of Gerona, 517, 
canons 6 and 7, orders that the bishop, priest, 
deacon, and sub-deacon, who may be married, to live 
apart from their wives, or that they have in their 
company a clerical friend, as witness of their con- 
tinence. This is manifestly contradictory to the 
sixth apostolic canon. 

Justinian, early in the sixth century, in his law 
de Epis. et Cler. prohibits the marriage of priests ; 
but St. Gregory the Great, in 580, but little after- 
wards, when Pelagius obliged sub-deacons to 
separate from their wives, observed that it was 
hard to subject them to a law which they had not 
promised to keep, and that in future they should 
only be obliged to promise chastity when they 
were ordained. 

St. Augustine, the apostle of England, was 
either so ignorant of this law, or else found it so 
impracticable, that he consulted St. Gregory to 
know if priests, incapable of maintaining absolute 
continence, could marry and yet continue in the 
sacred ministry.* 

Such was the confusion and variety of discip- 
line on this subject up to the seventh century. 
Each diocese had its own practice, and each deter- 
mined as seemed it best. But we must not lose 
sight of the vexations and abuses practised in 
order to put in execution a law which originated 

* V. the reply of Greg, to Augustine. 



80 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

more from the private notions of those who de- 
creed it, than from any utility that could result 
from it.* That such was its origin we have al- 
ready shown, and it is abundantly manifest from 
the insufficiency of those means employed to en- 
force it. 

The sixth general council was at length held. 
In it no disciplinary canons were enacted. Mean- 
time, uniformity of discipline was loudly called 
for on several points, and especially relating to the 
celibacy of priests, touching which there prevailed 
such contradictory practices. Eleven years sub- 
sequent, at the solicitation of most of the bishops 
who were present at that general council, Justinian 
convoked another as supplementary to it. More than 
two hundred bishops were consequently assembled 
in the emperor's palace, with the especial purpose 
of reforming and harmonizing the discipline of 
different sections of the church. We then, for 
the first time, see a general council establishing 
the law of celibacy. But in what manner was it 
done ? This we proceed to show.f 

The council says : J " Since in the apostolic 
canons, marriage is not permitted except to readers 
and singers, we henceforth prohibit it to sub-dea- 
cons, deacons, and presbyters, under penalty of 
deposition. Whoever, therefore, wishes " to marry, 
must do so before entering either of these orders." 

" We know that in the church at Rome married 
priests are required to abandon their wives ; but 
we, following the perfection of the apostolic can- 

* Fleury on the 7th cent. 

f Consult Fleury also on this council. His testimony is the 
more authoritative, since he defended the celibate. 
t Const. 3, Imp. Leon. 



ITS HISTORY. 81 

oris, desire that such marriages remain in force, 
and that such persons be not deprived of the so- 
ciety of their wives when they may with propriety 
enjoy it. Hence, if any married man be judged 
worthy of the holy ministry, he shall not be exclu- 
ded from it on account of being married, nor in 
his ordination shall he be made to promise to 
abandon his wife, lest dishonor be brought on 
matrimony, which God has instituted and blessed 
with his presence." 

" Every one therefore who in contempt of the 
apostolic canons shall presume to deprive either 
priest, deacon, or sub-deacon of the lawful society 
of his wife, shall be deposed. Those, however, 
who think they ought to elevate themselves above 
the regulation of the apostles, which forbids a man 
to forsake his wife under religious pretensions, 
and to do more than is divinely required of them, 
if they can part with their wives, by mutual con- 
sent, we command them to do so, and to show us 
their sincerity." 

This council has been generally accredited. 
Pope Sergius, however, refused to acknowledge 
it ; but that is not to be wondered at, for Rome 
always pretending to be not only the mother and 
mistress but also the queen of churches, never 
tolerated any censure upon her acts. Neverthe- 
less, the council in Trullo was recognised by the 
eastern church, under the title Qainisist^ as sup- 
plementary both to the 5th and 6th, and its author- 
ity remains still in force. 



82 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 



(a). Reflections upon the course of Pafnucius ; and 
upon the validity and legitimacy of the Quinisist 
Council. 

The advocates of a forced celibacy regard 
these two circumstances as the shoal on which all 
their arguments make shipwreck, and hence they 
endeavor in every way to pervert, disfigure, and 
question them. But notwithstanding all the quib- 
bling that can be exhausted upon facts so notorious 
and incontestable they are recognised as authentic. 

The course taken by Pafnucius, has been de- 
tailed by Socrates, who had conversed with many 
of the fathers present at the Council of Nice ; by 
Sozomeneus, a writer almost contemporary ; by 
Gelazius, who in the 5th century wrote a history 
of the acts of this council ; by Suidas and others. 
Dupin remarks, that " those who doubt this fact 
must do so through fear of the censure it brings 
upon the discipline of the church at the present 
day, rather than on the ground of any reasoning 
that can be alleged against it." Indeed Fleury 
does not contest it, nor does even Bergier dare to 
deny it. 

The council at Trullo was convoked by the Em- 
peror Justinian at the solicitation of many of the 
bishops present at the 6th general council ; a for- 
mality which preceded anterior councils. It was 
numerously attended, consisting of more than 200 
bishops, among whom were the four great patri- 
archs in person, and the pope by his legates. 
There was perfect liberty in voting. In it was 
no attempt to define doctrines, but simply to regu- 
late general discipline on those points in which 



ITS HISTORY. 83 

uniformity had been wanting, or departures from 
the spirit of the church had taken place. 

Now for such an object 200 bishops from the 
principal churches, were more than sufficient to 
collate the different usages of their several dio- 
ceses in order to choose that discipline most gen- 
erally received, and best adapted to the necessi- 
ties of the church. 

They all subscribed to the canons of this coun- 
cil, including the legates of the pope ; although 
the latter afterward pretended they did it in the 
surprise of the moment ; in fine the emperor ac- 
cepted and confirmed them. .Let the reader now 
judge which exhibits the most candor, wisdom, 
and prudence ; the eastern church in adopting and 
following the discipline fixed upon by this coun- 
cil without a dissenting vote ; or that of Rome in 
refusing to become subject to it because Pope 
Sergius stood aloof from it as in some of its can- 
ons interfering with the practice of his church. 
Who now can tolerate that blind devotion to popes 
which has led some to detract from the authority 
of a council respected by antiquity, and even in- 
corporated by the 7th council general, with the 
6th as a supplementary part of that ? The truth 
is, that the Romans are not yet willing to submit 
themselves to this declaration of the 7th general 
council ; but of what consequence is the recogni- 
tion of the church at Rome, to the catholicity of 
a council ? 

St. Antonine, Caetano, Sanderus, Clemangis, 
and others, call in question the Council of Pisa, 
because, forsooth, Rome became unwilling to rec- 
ognise it as legitimate ; nevertheless, Rome at 



84 CLERICAL CELIBACY 

first regarded it as general, and so do many church- 
es at the present day. 

The Council of Constance was regarded as 
general by the popes Martin V., Eugene IV., and 
Pius II. ; but after Rome found some of its pre- 
tensions rather inconvenient, she ceased to recog- 
nise it as such ; nevertheless, the greater share of 
Catholic churches still give it rank among the 
general councils. The Council of Bazil is gen- 
eral with some, private with others, and part of its 
sessions are rejected by a third class. In fact, 
there are five opinions respecting its orthodoxy. 

The 5th Lateran council is only regarded as 
general by the ultramontanists, and that of Flor- 
ence is not yet admitted to that category by France. 

In view of these facts, from which it appears 
that the mere church of France or of Rome can 
with impunity recognise or omit to recognise a 
council as general, that was held even on doc- 
trinal subjects, who can dispute the right of the 
eastern church, then the most considerable por- 
tion of the whole Catholic body, to sustain the 
authority of the Council of Trullo on matters 
purely disciplinary? Rome herself was so well 
satisfied of these truths that she has remained 
content with preserving her discipline, and never 
censuring that of the eastern church, founded on 
this council. Other councils general were after- 
ward held, in which both churches united, but 
none of them assumed to revoke the discipline 
established by the Council of Trullo. 



ITS HISTORY. 85 

(6). Continuation of the history of clerical celibacy, 
subsequent to the seventh century. 

The eastern church confirmed its discipline re- 
specting the marriage of priests. There, the mar- 
ried priest who was ordained, lived as a married 
man until death ; but if one who had vowed chas- 
tity and had been ordained single, then married, 
he lost his office as a punishment for his violation 
of faith. Continence was required as a perfec- 
tion in bishops, but as these were few in number 
and generally taken at an advanced age from mon- 
asteries, where the practice of this virtue had 
been rendered constant and easy, no inconvenience 
resulted from the regulation. 

Notwithstanding what was decreed at the coun- 
cil above referred to, the custom by degrees ob- 
tained of priests taking a sort of noviciate of two 
years, during which they might still marry, with- 
out being dismissed from their office. The Em- 
peror Leo abolished this practice as an abuse.* 

At length the eastern church ceased altogether 
to strive against nature, and to oppose ineffective 
barriers to the propensity for matrimony. Her 
clergy acquired the public confidence, founded on 
the consideration of their virtues. Thus a single 
judicious law, adapted equally to the nature of 
man and to ecclesiastical dignity, put an end to 
evils which the Latin church, in councils, bulls, 
and decrees, without number, has attempted, and 
to this day endeavors in vain to avoid. 

In fact, notwithstanding the rivalry between the 
two churches, which would naturally produce the 

* Fleury, Hist. eccL'll cent. 
8 



86 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

greatest exactness in the observance of the disci- 
pline of each, we find that in the 9th century the 
national Council of Worms established anew the 
law of celibacy, under penalty of suspension for 
its infraction, just as though the ancient law had 
been forgotten. 

In the 10th century, the Council of Augsburgh 
again prohibited the marriage of bishops, presby- 
ters, deacons, and sub-deacons, as it observed ac- 
cording to the decree of the Council of Carthage. 
Into such disuse had the ancient laws fallen that 
this council only thought of referring to that of 
Carthage, and not to the decisions of popes, or 
even of anterior councils. 

Yvo de Chartres, in the 11th century, when 
consulted by Galon, Bishop of Paris, respecting 
the marriage of one of his canons, replied, that if 
a similar thing should occur in his diocese, he 
should let the marriage stand, and content himself 
with causing the canon to descend to a lower 
office. This circumstance proves the disuse into 
which the ancient laws on this subject had fallen. 
It was so great that even bishops seemed to be 
unacquainted with their existence, and the most 
scrupulous among them were governed, in cases 
like these, merely by their own option. 

In the Council of Pavia, at which Benedict 
VIII. presided, the penalty of deposition was in- 
stituted against priests who kept concubines ; and 
horrible is the picture which that pope drew of 
the licentious lives which they led. 

This doubtless resulted in a great degree from 
the prohibition of matrimony, which would natu- 



ITS HISTORY. 87 

rally be enforced in places under the immediate 
inspection of the popes. 

It appears that in this century, in far the larger 
portion of the Latin church, the law requiring 
celibacy was in perfect disuse. 

This is what St. Peter Damian affirms to the 
pope on the testimony of the bishops. It is what 
he himself observed, in the bishopric of Turin, 
where the clergy had married by consent of Co- 
nibertus, their bishop, and as he confessed, were 
the most honorable and learned he had met with.* 

The same is gathered from the letter which 
Alexander II. addressed to the king and bishops 
of Dalmatia, wherein the pope declared if in future 
a bishop, priest, or deacon, should marry or should 
retain a wife which he had, he should be degraded 
from his office, and should neither assist in the 
choir, nor receive the emoluments of the church.f 
It is again seen in the decree of Nicolas II., ad- 
dressed to the bishops of France, and ordering 
that, in consequence of a resolution expressed in 
the canons of the Council of Rome, at which he 
had presided, every priest who, subsequently to 
the decree of Leo IX. (8 years previous), had 
publicly married, and did not abandon his wife, 
should be deprived of his ecclesiastical functions, 
and no longer take part in the sacred offices of a 
presbyter.J 

It was on this occasion that St. Uldaric, or, as 
others prefer to call him, Gontier, chancellor of 
the Emperor Henry IV., and Bishop of Bambergh, 

* Mabillon Lib. 62. Annal. ou Ep. 25. 
t Hugo Flavi. Tom. 1., nov. Bibliot. 
t Escritores da meia idade, Tom. 2. 



88 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

wrote to Nicolas, affirming that the marriage of 
priests was neither forbidden by the Old nor New 
Testaments ; and concluded by urging the pope 
to withdraw his decree, lest it should expose the 
clergy to great crimes, by depriving them of the 
wives whom they had lawfully married.* 

Gregory VII., more active, or less prudent, un- 
dertook to restore this discipline, which during sev- 
en centuries had not been put in general practice. 
He employed every species of means, and by his 
order, or in imitation of him, several councils re- 
newed the prohibition. But what was the result ? 
The clergy of Cambray wrote a letter to their 
brethren of Rheims, imploring aid against the Ro- 
manists, and against Gerard their bishop, who in- 
sisted upon their putting away their wives in obe- 
dience to the pope's legate, who was attempting 
to enforce a decree so long ineffective. f The 
clergy of Nyon wrote a similar letter to that of 
Cambray, expressing the same sentiments 4 

The Gallic clergy withstood the decree of Greg- 
ory VII., and did not hesitate to pronounce him a 
heretic for ordering separation from their wives, 
against the express prohibition of scripture. Sig- 
ibert, of Glenbour, also remonstrated against the 
decree. || 

The Archbishop of Mayence and the Bishop 
ofPass,3declared that, although they ordered the 
decree to be enforced, it was simply in awe of 
that pope, so inflexible in his opinions. In fact, 

* Mabillon Lib. 64. Annal n. 133— Ibid in Append, 
t Musaeum Italicum. Tom. 1. 

i Cellier Hist, des Auteurs Eecl — Richard's Analysis of 
Councils. 
jj Lambert Stet. 



ITS HISTORY. 89 

the pope, dissatisfied with such an execution of 
his commands, summoned the archbishop to appear 
in Rome, accompanied by his suffragans.* 

Aton, Bishop of Constance, perceiving the evils 
that would result from the execution of that im- 
prudent decree, not only omitted putting it in force, 
but suffered his clergy still to marry ; but the 
pope summoned him to Rome, ordered his clergy 
and people not to obey him, and at length excom- 
municated him. 

At the Council of Worms, in presence of Henry 
IV., Gregory VII. was deposed by all the bishops 
present, on account of the disorders occasioned 
by his imprudent decrees. In the same year, the 
pope deposed Henry IV., and absolved his vassals 
from their oath of allegiance, at the same time 
deposing and excommunicating a great number of 
bishops. f 

These were the results of imprudent and unjust 
measures. Public tranquillity was disturbed, and 
in many places the clergy themselves rebelled ; 
and the superstition of the age favoring the designs 
of the pope, whole countries were involved in ter- 
rible commotions. The rigor of his indiscreet 
zeal by no means moderated, and he at length tri- 
umphed, at the expense of religion, and the dis- 
credit of the church. £ 

In the same century, however, the council of 
Winchester resolved that married priests might 
continue to live with their wives, and that only in 
future no one should be ordained without promising 

* Vit. Greg. Act. Mabillon. 

T V. Hist. Eccl. de Fleury, de Choas and de Qmeiner. 

t V. Vol. 5, Sup. to Richard's Annals of the Councils. 

8* 



90 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

continence. In Estrigonia, in 1114, Archbishop 
Lorenzo, in the 31st canon of the council held in 
that city, permitted priests, married before their 
ordination, to remain in conjugal life, although prin- 
ciples of chastity were enjoined upon them.* 

Such was the state of things relating to the 
celibacy of the clergy, when the general Lateran 
Council of 1139 decreed that all marriages of 
priests should be null, subjecting those who had 
been guilty of matrimony to penance, and renewing 
the prohibition of hearing mass from them or such 
as kept concubines. Thenceforward priests could 
no longer marry, and concubinage universally took 
the place of matrimony. 

In 1237, a council in London, at which a Legate 
of the Pope presided, in its fifteenth canon, or- 
dained that the clergyman who should marry clan- 
destinely should be deprived of his benefice, and 
his children incapable of holding property, or of 
receiving ordination. This proves that secret mar- 
riages came in vogue when they could no longer 
be celebrated openly. 

In 1279 the Council of Pont-au-de-mar, canon 20, 
again spoke of married priests, in a manner which 
proves that in the archbishopric of Rouen clerical 
marriages were still tolerated. It is true that 
Richard supposes this toleration merely to have 

* In reading the records of councils, we find that the rea- 
sons on which their decisions were based, are not in all cases 
the best. E. g. the 4th general Lateran Council decided that 
an order was not valid unless given in good faith, alleging, 
as a foundation of said decision, this maxim — Omne quod 
non est ex fide, peccatum est. Nothing could be more ill ap- 
plied. Another council general, in prohibiting matrimony 
with the four degrees of kindred, founded itself on the four 
fluids that composed the four elements, &c. ! ! 



ITS HISTORY. 91 

extended to sub-deacons ; but such, a supposition is 
purely gratuitous, having no real foundation. 

It is worthy of especial remark, that notwith- 
standing the reiteration, during successive ages, of 
the prohibition forbidding priests to marry, and the 
penalties declared against concubinage, yet things 
became no better, nor were ecclesiastics punished 
according to the laws. Such a phenomenon has 
never occurred, except when laws have been man- 
ifestly unjust, or ill-adapted to their object. The 
innate sentiment of justice opposes the execution 
of contradictory laws, and their executors become 
indifferent to their enforcement. Thus nature her- 
self supplies the oversight and deficiencies of 
imprudent lawgivers. 

Finally, the last general council in the sixteenth 
century mitigated a little the penalties of concu- 
binage, but, as we have already observed, cofirrned 
the law making clerical orders an absolute imped- 
iment to matrimony, and anathematized those who 
should say that priests might marry in spite of the 
ecclesiastical law prohibiting them ; asserting as 
a reason, that continence is not impossible, and 
that God will grant it to all who ask for it in a 
proper manner * 

* What but the most stupid ignorance, joined to the gross- 
est superstition, could have reconciled sovereigns to tolerate 
certain acts of the councils, e. g. the persecution of Jews and 
heretics, with the enslavement of the former j a prohibition to 
enjoy public offices, and a subjection to be robbed of their 
children, &c. 

The fourth Lateran Council went so far as to threaten that 
the Pope would expose the lands of those princes who should 
not expel heretics from their dominions. Jt is equally curious 
to see the councils of Toledo and Saragossa, in the latter part 
of the seventh century, prohibiting the widows of kings to 
marry, under pain of excommunication, and obliging them to 
take the habit of nuns in some monastery for life, kc, &c. 



92 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

This council, however, was not accredited on 
points of discipline in many places ; and to this 
day, France and Hungary have not consented to 
its publication ; while many of its articles have 
been reformed, altered, and nullified, sometimes by 
popes, sometimes by governments, and finally, by 
contrary custom and disuse. 

That was certainly attained which some of the 
popes desired ; that is, priests were prohibited 
marrying. Sovereigns, ignorant of their rights, 
frightened by the superstition of their people, and 
subject to the dominion of popes, tolerated, or 
rather yielded to, the sentiments of their times.* 
And if France, free from the ordeal of fire which 
was made to devour the victims destined to placate 
the wrath of the Omnipotent, when they dared to 
question the maxims published by the See of Rome, 
had not, by a peculiar providence, preserved some 
remnants of liberty, much more tardy had been 
the progress and spread of the true principles of 
ecclesiastical law.f 

One truth ought not to be overlooked ; it is that 
clerical orders have prevailed as an absolute im- 
pediment to matrimony, only while temporal power 
has sustained the measure by the sword ; which 
circumstance councils have designed to secure by 
the thunder of their anathemas. Whenever sov- 

* It ought to be observed, that the liberties of the Roman 
Catholic church in France owe their existence more to the 
protestations of government than to the efforts of ecclesiastics. 
The latter have several times solicited the publication of the 
Council of Trent, in which the rights of bishops are very little 
consulted ; but the design is apparent, of inculcating the 
universal dominion of popes, their supremacy to general 
councils, &c, &c. 

t V. 1st Council of Vienna, 4th Lateran, that of Florence, &c. 



VIEW OF THE INSTITUTION. 93 

ereigns have left this matter at the option of 
ecclesiastics, they have promptly changed their 
concubinage into lawful matrimony. This has 
been observed among Protestant sects in England, 
and more recently in France. 

§9. COMPENDIOUS VIEW OF THE INSTITUTION OF 
CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

It has now been proved that this institution is nei- 
ther divine nor apostolic in its origin ; that up to the 
close of the third century Christian ministers were 
at liberty to marry, and live a conjugal life with those 
wives whom they had espoused prior to their ordi- 
nation, although, through custom, their marriages 
were rare, and many withdrew from conjugal life 
by mutual consent ; that from the beginning of the 
fourth century, when the especial law enjoining 
celibacy originated, its non-observance was so 
uniform, that in many places it fell into perfect 
disuse, and even total forgetfulness ; that notwith- 
standing the renewals of that law in subsequent 
ages, with bitter and most unjust penalties, yet it 
never was generally enforced ; that in the eleventh 
century, the law in question had fallen into such 
complete forgetfulness, that priests married with 
impunity in the greater share of dioceses, even 
with the permission of their respective bishops ; 
and that after the general Lateran Council in the 
twelfth century, constituted clerical orders an ab- 
solute impediment to matrimony, still, in some 
dioceses, the clergy preserved their right to marry. 

It has been proved that in the east, from the 
beginning, priests have enjoyed the privileges of 
marriage contracted before their ordination ; and 



94 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

that even those who were single, sometimes, though 
rarely, married ; that about the end of the 7th 
century, discipline having been hitherto divergent 
on this particular, the Quinisist Council confirmed 
it for ever, declaring not only that matrimony was 
no obstacle to ordination, but that it was criminal 
to oblige a priest to abandon his wife ; and that 
although a single priest who married subsequent 
to his ordination was deposed, yet his marriage 
was accounted valid. 

Have these practices of the eastern church ever 
been condemned by the western? This question 
gives rise to the following observation : — 

§10. THE WESTERN CHURCH NEVER OPPOSED THE 
DISCIPLINE OF THE EASTERN, IN RESPECT TO 
THE CELIBACY OF PRIESTS. 

The council held in Trullo censured the church 
of Rome for excluding her married priests from 
conjugal life, contrary to the express declarations 
of scripture, and what was still worse, obliging 
them to separation. There has not appeared a 
council of the Latin church which has attempted 
to defend itself from this imputation. The Latin 
and Greek churches preserved their unity several 
centuries subsequent to this event, and celebrated 
together several general councils, which kept 
silence on this matter, while each church continued 
in its own disciplinary practices. 

The two churches at length separated, and w^hen 
a re-union was stipulated, the Greek church, 
among other things, required of the Latin the abo- 
lition of celibacy.* When, in 1215, in the gen- 

* Can. 14 ordains punishment in aU the rigor of the canons, 
against priests living in concubinage, and adds : Qui autem 



COMPENDIUM OF THE ARGUMENT. 95 

eral Lateran Council, under Innocent III., in 
presence of trie Patriarchs of Constantinople and 
Jerusalem, and of the Emperor of the East, cer- 
tain canons were instituted relative to the Greeks, 
the Latins, far from censuring their practice in 
retaining married priests, on the contrary, formally 
recognised the legitimacy of the usage.* 

Innocent III., being consulted to know if the son 
of a Greek priest could be promoted to the epis- 
copacy, replied, that as the Greek church did not 
admit the vow of continence, without the least doubt 
the ordination might proceed.] In fine, Benedict 
XIV., knowing that he had no right to alter the 
discipline respecting celibacy toward those Greeks 
who had become reunited with the Latin church, 
granted them the preservation of their usages on 
this point in the bull 57, de dogm. et rit. ab Itol- 
ogre. tenend.J 

§11. GENERAL COMPENDIUM OF THE ARGUMENT. 

We have now demonstrated the legitimate au- 
thority of the General Legislative Assemby of 
Brazil, to establish, revoke, and abrogate impedi- 
ments to matrimony, as being essentially a civil 
contract, and entirely and exclusively subject to 
temporal power. 

We have demonstrated the necessity of abolish- 

secundem regionis suae morem non abdicarunt copulam conju- 
galem, si lapsi fuerint, gravius puniatur, cum legitime matri- 
monio possunt uti. 

* Mandamus, si aliud canonicum non obsistat, ad confirma- 
tionem, et consecrationem sine dubitatione procedas. In C. 
cum olim de clericis conj. 

t V. cap. 6 de cler. conj. 

% Burchard's selection of canons, and Richard's reflections 
on same. Art. Empecti. del. Ord. 



96 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

ing the impediment of clerical orders, as being 
unjust, and the cause of immorality both to clergy 
and people, and at the very least as useless. 

We have further demonstrated, that clerical ce- 
libacy was neither enjoined by Christ and his 
apostles upon ministers of religion, nor was it 
exclusively recommended to them ; that notwith- 
standing the discipline of the eastern and western 
churches was different, in this respect, from the 
close of the 3d or beginning of the 4th century, 
yet that circumstance was never a cause of dis- 
union or of anathema ; that the Greek church, 
however, has always censured the Latin for ex- 
cluding married priests from matrimonial life,, 
while the latter has never taken exception to the 
customs of the Greek church on this point, but y 
on the contrary, has solemnly recognised them as 
legitimate, and permitted their practice to Greek 
clergymen who have become united with it. 

§12. LAWFULNESS OF CENSURE UPON DISCIPLINE.- 

We must first premise that the church merely 
defines and declares what is doctrine, and that her 
decrees do not change, except respecting disci- 
pline ; that doctrine is in its nature invariable, being 
founded upon the constant revelation of scripture, 
or upon universal and uninterrupted tradition ; that 
discipline, on the other hand, is in its nature 
variable, because, in the first place, it is founded 
on human calculations, which may err ; because, in 
the second place, wisdom and prudence, of which 
legislators are not always possessed in abundance, 
demand that it should be so ; and finally, because 
it needs to be adapted to the circumstances of time, 



CENSURE UPON DISCIPLINE. 97 

place, and persons, which are perpetually changing. 
That clerical celibacy is a matter of discipline, 
has been manifest in what we have said, showing 
it to be merely an ecclesiastical institution, although 
this feature would not be changed in case it could 
be proved apostolical. Let those who are scrupu- 
lous, however, consult Burchard, bishop of Worms, 
Richard,* Pius IV. ,f Selvagius,J Natal Alexan- 
der, § and even Bergier,|| and others who can not be 
suspected. 

I will repeat the words of Richard for this rea- 
son, that he is a most pertinacious defender of 
celibacy. Here they are : " Discipline is essen- 
tially variable, because it does not consist in things 
necessary to salvation, or determined or revealed 
in the Gospel, but in practices either indifferent in 
themselves or not. essentially necessary, and whose 
utility depends upon times, persons, and nations. 
Hence the same practices may be useful at one 
time, in respect to a certain people, and useless, 
or even prejudicial, at another time, in respect to 
another people. For this reason, the decisions of 
the church are not always the same upon the same 
points of discipline ; and hence the difference 
between the Latin and Greek churches, respecting 
the administration of sacraments, celibacy of 
priests, &c, &c. In order that a point in disci- 
pline should be invariable, and a matter of faith, it 
were necessary that it should have been revealed, 
and believed as such by universal tradition." — 
Treatise on Councils, chap. 17, Rule 4. 

* See preceding note, 
f V. Fleury continuation of Hist. 
X Selv. Inst. can. e Antig. Eclez. 
S Dissert, ad 4th cent, llist. Eclez. 
\\ Art. Celib. Diction. Theolog. 
9 



98 CLERICAL CELIBACY 

It is not only lawful, but it is evidently a duty of 
man, as a member of society and as a good Chris- 
tian, to censure every species of legislation which 
is found in contradiction with nature, and with the 
objects for which it was instituted. Respect and 
moderation, however, ought to direct in the analy- 
sis of either injustice, imprudence, or inutility, in 
the law which it is contemplated to abolish. But 
censure freely exercised by the subjects, is the 
peaceful and lawful means by which the lawgiver 
may learn the imperfections of a law, and become 
sufficiently enlightened to modify or revoke, accord- 
ing to the exigence of circumstances. 

To what but censure do we owe the extinction 
of so many abuses in ecclesiastical discipline, so 
many excesses of jurisdiction, and so many super- 
stitions stealthily introduced into the worship of 
God ? If public censure had not been prohibited — 
if the tribunal of fire had not closed up the mouth 
alike of the wise and the suffering — if popes had 
not assumed the right of imposing silence by 
means of their terrible anathemas, not only against 
him who spake, but who even thought, in contra- 
diction to their principles — if a shameful espion- 
age had not been made the duty of every Roman 
Catholic, who was obliged to denounce even his 
own father, his own son, or the wife of his bosom, 
to be immolated in the sacred fire which supersti- 
tion kindled in the very heart of empires, and 
which ought not to have been endured by those who 
had the power to extinguish it — but for these 
obstacles, the law of celibacy would not have been 
perpetuated in the church as a source of continual 
evil to society, individuals, and the church herself.* 
* Note C. Appendix. 



CENSURE UPON DISCIPLINE. 99 

Meantime we owe to the efforts of nature con- 
tending against the prejudices of education, the 
exercise of that just censure which has put an 
end to the celebrated ordeals denominated judg- 
ments of God ; to the eucharist administered to 
the dead ; to the persecution of the Jews ; to the 
disastrous crusades ; to the abuse of indulgences ; 
to the universal dominion of popes ; to the vener- 
ation of false decretals; to the existence of the 
holy office of the Inquisition, &c. &c. 

But censure must still continue, in order that 
the discipline of the church be further modified, 
altered, and perfected ; so much the more in the 
present day, since popes, fearing the omnipotence 
of general councils, for three hundred years have 
omitted to convoke any more, contrary to the ex- 
press determination of said councils, to which 
they are subordinate, and to which they owe a 
filial obedience., as well as the rest of us Catho- 
lics. 

The church is not infallible, save when she de- 
fines doctrines in theology and morals. As to 
discipline, she may fail in prudence, and even tol- 
erate things very difficult to be justified. This 
was asserted by the great Cano ; and the judi- 
cious Fleury, in analyzing some usages in modern 
discipline, remarks : " To all these things I see 
no reply, unless it be compatible with good faith 
to grant that in these matters, like all others, prac- 
tice does not always accord with right reason. 
But it does not hence follow that we abandon our 
principles, which we see plainly founded on scrip- 
ture and the most wholesome traditions of anti- 



100 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

quity."* The great theologian, James, of Paiva, 
so much eulogized by the historians of the Council 
of Trent, declared before that body, that councils 
may err in matters of discipline, and not only so, 
but they frequently decree things not the most 
suitable.! Such is also the opinion of our own 
Pereira,J and many others versed in the de- 
crees of councils ;|| while St. Augustine himself 
remarked the same thing in the 4th century. § 
Let no one, therefore, deny us the use of a right 
which to him who knows how to appreciate it, 
becomes also a most important duty. 

§13. THE DISCIPLINE OF THE CHURCH OF ROME 
RESPECTING CLERICAL CELIBACY IS NOT PRU- 
DENT. 

It remains to examine whether the church does 
right in insisting upon the celibacy of priests, as 
a necessary condition of their being preserved in 
their office, since this is her only proper preroga- 
tive ; it having been shown that the power of 

* Discours. 10., Hist. Eccl. 

t Liv. 1, Def. Trid. Fid. 

t Analise da Profisao da Fe. &c. 

|| In fact, if we should yield a blind obedience to councils, 
"what would become of us, having before our eyes the anath- 
ema of the council general of Constance, against those who 
said that the decretals were false, and all the clergy who 
studied them ? 

In what state would civilization be found if we should im- 
plicitly follow the decrees of councils, from the 7th century 
to the Council of Trent ? Let those tell us, who have read 
them, and who know the eviis they have caused. The dark 
ages in which they were held are a palliation to their errors, 
and it is still to be wondered how Divine Providence could 
preserve doctrine unharmed, in the midst of such ignorance. 

§ Quis nescit ipsa pleniora, saepc a posterioribus emendari, 
id "est, Conciliis. Liv. 2, C, 3 de bapt. cont. Don. 



THE DISCIPLINE NOT PRUDENT. 101 

rendering null their marriages, belongs exclusively 
to temporal authority. 

To desire that ministers of religion be perfect, 
that is, that they may possess not only ordinary 
virtues, but even such as may render them angelic, 
is an excellent desire. It corresponds to the ad- 
vice given by the Savior to all Christians, and es- 
pecially to their ministers and spiritual guides. 
But to determine by law that priests must be per- 
fect, is an impracticable assumption, founded on 
the mistaken notion that perfection is a natural 
state, and hence may be common to an entire class. 
It is to elevate an exception above a general rule ; 
it is an imprudence calculated to make the yoke 
of obedience heavy, salvation difficult, and human 
life in many cases insupportable. It is a severity 
which Jesus Christ, the author and founder of our 
religion, did not exact, which the apostles did not 
institute, and to which the church herself did not 
assent, until the 4th century. 

The discipline of celibacy would be tolerable, 
if instead of being established by law it were left 
to custom, and to the choice of the individual, as 
was wisely done till the close of the third century. 
Few evils would then result from it, and the 
church would neither be destitute of upright min- 
isters, nor would the weak be exposed to such 
frequent occasions of stumbling. If it were per- 
mitted to receive ministers from the class of men 
who are married, the following results might be 
expected. 1. The number of persons eligible to 
the office would be infinitely increased, and there 
would consequently be opportunity for a better 
choice. 2. The church would be enabled to be 
9* 



102 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

severe in her examination of persons voluntarily 
making vows of chastity, to know whether they 
actually are examples of the perfection they pro- 
fess. 3. She would not be obliged to avail her- 
self of the ministerial services of young men, at 
20 years of age, but might wait till they were ma- 
ture ; that is, till at least 30 years ; the period at 
which Christ commenced his divine mission, and 
which, having been required by the ancient canons, 
is doubtless necessary for the proper discharge of 
functions so august as to demand that respect 
which age united to virtue inspires. This could 
not be secured at the present time, since those 
men are very rare who would remain single till 
30 years old, in order to enter the ministry, and 
hence a great want of service would be experi- 
enced. Thus one evil brings on another. 4. The 
church would not then be under the necessity of 
closing her eyes upon the concubinage of priests 
(as the pious Gerson long since thought proper), 
but might proceed against them with all the rigor 
of canonical law ; might sift the wheat from the 
chaff, preserve unspotted the honor and dignity of 
the church, and promote the welfare and salvation 
of an unworthy minister, by separating him from an 
office for which he is not suitable, without how- 
ever depriving him of the only means of remedy- 
ing his misfortune. 

Some friends, however, of the usages of our 
church, perhaps prejudiced in favor of their anti- 
quity, would prefer that we should return to the 
discipline decreed, although very rarely practised, 
between the 4th and 12th centuries ; that is, that 
we should not admit to the ecclc-sinstica] office 



THE DISCIPLINE NOT PRUDENT. 103 

married men who remained as such, but would 
merely depose those priests who should marry, 
without annulling their marriages. In fact, noth- 
ing but a blind presumption, or a fanatical regard 
for customs, of whose origin they are ignorant, 
could discover to any, motives of preference in 
favor of a discipline whose results we have al- 
ready depicted. I confess, however, that this 
choice would be that of a less evil, since at least 
some priests would prefer matrimony to the honors 
and conveniences conferred by the priesthood. 
Nevertheless, the greater part would do as his- 
torians inform us the priests did when Gregory 
VII., displaying the whole rigor of his zeal, 
obliged them to abandon either their churches or 
their wives. Almost all, at first, feigned divorce, 
and soon secretly, but afterward openly, presented 
the heart-sickening spectacle of infidelity and of 
scandal. * 

Let us now forget, for a moment, all that has 
been said, in order to suppose it necessary, or at 
least of prime utility, that the priest be single, in 
order to preserve himself (as St. Paul expresses 
it), free from the cares of the world, not being 
anxious to please his wife, &c. But b}^ being free 
from a wife may he not also have father, mother, 
sisters, and, perhaps, children, to care for ? In 
the present discipline under which priests are or- 

* Sineius, early in the 5th century, refusing to accept a bish- 
opric, said it was because he did not wish to visit his wife in 
a secret manner, giving the semblance of adultery to what 
was lawful. This seems to indicate that the greater share of 
married priests practised on the principles to which he object- 
ed, as the reiterated prohibitions of councils aimed at the 
same thing. 



104 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

dained with the title of a patrimony, are they not 
nearly all employed in earning the means of sub- 
sistence ? Are they not artists, teachers, or cul- 
tivators, maintaining a great number of domestics 
under their supervision ? 

The judicious Fleury asks : " What is the care 
of a family in comparison with that of a State ? 
What is the attention due to a wife and five or six 
children, and domestics in proportion, compared 
to that necessary in the government of a hundred 
thousand subjects ?" Now, beside the case of 
many bishops who* govern large countries, we 
have the case of our most holy father the pope, 
offering us the example of a monarch bishop, 
ruling millions of men. But do none of these 
things usurp those cares which ought to be ex- 
clusively employed in the holy ministry ? Do 
they not divide the heart of the priest, and dis- 
qualify it for prayer? Is matrimony a sacrament 
full of grace, and called for by the nature of man ] 
Is this the only condition in life which incapaci- 
tates man for the priesthood ? All know that it is 
not. And it is not, if for no other reason, because 
among the apostles there was only one, John, a 
single man, and he was not the individual who 
received the honor of the primacy, but Peter, who 
was beyond question a married man. Again, it is 
not, because the universal church, until the 4th 
century, admitted to the priesthood married men, 
who retained their wives, and the eastern church 
to this day does the same ; while the western 
church has approved of its conduct in this respect, 
although she yet refuses to imitate it. 

Let us proceed to another hypothesis, as though 



THE DISCIPLINE NOT PRUDENT. 105 

all the foregoing reasons were either specious or 
futile. Is there any one who will pretend that 
continence is practised by the greater portion of 
the clergy ? Let us grant the very least, that one 
hundredth part of the priests are incontinent. 
Does not this proportion deserve the compassion 
of the church ? Did not Christ, in his parable of 
the good shepherd, show that in order to save a 
single lost sheep he would often leave the ninety- 
nine which were out of danger ? 

Let the church, then, leave the ninety-nine 
priests who, we will suppose, can remain conti- 
nent or not, at their option, and if but a single one 
is lost through the law of celibacy, let her revoke 
that law. 

The Hebrews were absolved from the natural 
law, and permitted to have more than one wife, 
but Christ declares that polygamy was suffered 
among them by Moses, on account of the hard- 
ness of their hearts. 

Fifteen hundred years of experience prove the 
impracticability of a pure celibacy in the greater 
part of the clergy. Let the church, then, grant 
them matrimony, which at the very least, is not 
opposed to the laws of nature. 

St. Clement of Alexandria, and other fathers, 
who regarded successive marriages as criminal, 
nevertheless concede that St. Paul permitted them, 
in view of human weakness. Let the church, 
then, permit the marriage of priests, which is no 
crime, in view of their notorious weakness ! For 
this permission there is no need of indulgence ; 
prudence and justice sufficiently demand it. Let 
the church be governed by the advice of Paul, 



106 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

when he spake by permission and not by com- 
mandment ; and in imitation of him, at least grant 
marriage to priests lest Satan tempt them to incon- 
tinence. 

Was it not St. Augustine who taught that the 
severity of a law ought to be moderated, in order 
that charity may apply a remedy to greater evils ?* 

Did not Pope St. Simasius proclaim this max- 
im:!— It would be cruel to insist on the observ- 
ance of a law, when that law has become preju- 
dicial to the church ; because laws are made with 
the design of preventing, not producing evil ? 

Did not St. Bernard say, " nothing is more just 
than a change, alteration, or omission of those 
things which have been established through prin- 
ciples of charity, when charity itself thus de- 
mands ?" \ 

And has not this been the course of the church 
respecting many important laws, some of which 
were dictated by the apostles themselves ? 

Even in our own generation, have not Catholics 
been absolved from the sanctiflcation of a multi- 
tude of holydays, which, during ages past, they 
were obliged to keep holy by abstinence from 
flesh, and a cessation of labor on said days \\ 

* Ep. 151, apud. Grat. f Ep. ad avit. 

% Lib. de Proc. e Discip. 

§ An infinite number of the laws of the church have been 
revoked, or suffered to fall into complete disuse. Without 
mentioning many other examples in point, I will refer to 
frugality at bishops' tables, which, from the two dishes limited 
by several councils, is changed into sumptuous banquets. 
Silks, gold, and precious stones, so often prohibited, have 
become their common dress and ornaments. In fine, the sim- 
plicity in their houses and furniture which so many councils 
concerned themselves to perpetuate by appropriate canons, 
has been changed into a degree of luxury, ill-becoming the 



THE DISCIPLINE NOT PRUDENT. 107 

I will now, at the close of my observations, 
submit the case of St. Paul, which, to every lover 
of truth and justice, is more than sufficient to prove 
all that I have said respecting chastity. It is 
detailed for our profit in the scriptures. 

It having become necessary that there should 
be some women in the church, set apart for the 
catechism, instruction and assistance of other 
women ; but this service being incompatible with 
the subjection due to a husband, and the residence 
necessary to a married woman in her own house, 
with her family, St. Paul determined that for dea- 
conesses should be chosen widows of one hus- 

spirit of that religion of which they are the principal minis- 
ters. Splendid palaces, a numerous train of servants, sump- 
tuous carriages, &c, &c, are the example which the head of 
the church and his cardinals give us of obedience to the canon- 
ical laws enjoining Christian simplicity! But it is rejoined 
that times have changed, and, in this respect, discipline must 
change with them. Very well. Then the discipline requiring 
celibacy is alone necessary to be eternally preserved? He 
who fasts may receive more than one species of food ; the 
penitent may be delivered from the rigor of penitential canons ; 
the uncle may marry his niece, for in all these cases regard 
must be had to human weakness j we may omit to sanctify 
the days of St. Philip, St. Lawrence, &c, in order to devote 
them to labor, since experience has shown that such days are 
generally spent in amusements, gaming, indolence, and crime j 
and in no one of these cases are the faithful ordered to beseech 
Heaven to succor their weakness, and to exert themselves, since God 
docs not command impossibilities, but impar's his grace to those 
who worthily seek it. The priest, however, alas for him ! can 
not marry, although the experience of fifteen centuries has 
proved the yoke of celibacy to be hard, and the law requiring 
it to be the cause of concubinage, scandal, disgrace, and mis- 
fortune, to persons unnumbered. All other laws may be abol- 
ished ; their frequent transgression may be a sufficient pretext 
for the legislator to revoke them, in order to avoid greater 
evils ; but upon the law of celibacy, notwithstanding its 
public and constant violation, legislators must forever close 
their eyes ! The Lord have mercy upon his church ! Vide 
Appendix, note D. 



108 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

band, honest, sober, &c, who should be sustained 
at the expense of the churches which they served. 
What followed ? In a short time the apostle 
discovered a necessity of remedying the evil. He 
says, 1. Tim. 5: 9-16: "Let not a widow be 
taken into the number under threescore years old, 
having been the wife of one man, well reported of 
for good works," &c. " But the younger widows 
refuse," Sic. " I will, therefore, that the younger 
women marry, bear children, guide the house, give 
none occasion to the adversary t3 speak reproach- 
fully ; for some are already turned aside after 
Satan."* If, then, the church of Rome is unwil- 
ling to revive the earliest and happiest ages of 
Christianity, by the ordination of married men 
possessed of the qualifications required by the 
apostles, let her at least imitate the wisdom, pru- 
dence, and charity of that inspired man, and admit 
to the ecclesiastical office no more bachelors, until 
they shall have at least arrived at the discreet age 
of threescore years ! 

* What different prudence we have in these days I Girls 
and boys, at the age of sixteen years, are admitted to a pro- 
fession of vows, in which they oblige themselves not only to 
celibacy for life, but to blind obedience, rigorous poverty, and 
an eternal imprisonment ! Which is the better discipline, 
that instituted by St. Paul or by our modern canons ? Let the 
results of each testify. 



CONCLUSION. 109 



CONCLUSION. 

Having now demonstrated the right of the civil 
authority to establish, modify, and revoke impedi- 
ments to matrimony and the necessity of abolish- 
ing the impediment of clerical orders, it would be 
wrong to doubt for a moment that the General 
Assembly of Brazil, either through mistaken cal- 
culations of prudence, or regard to the prejudices 
of certain individuals, who enjoy little or no con- 
sideration in society, will hesitate in the discharge 
of an important duty, and leave an honorable and 
numerous class of citizens to suffer still longer the 
deprivation of a right as sacred as it is essential 
to the human race, a privation also which entails 
unnumbered evils upon society itself.* It. remains, 
however, to show that, in an additional and indi- 
rect manner, it belongs to the General Assembly 
to restrain the discipline of clerical celibacy. 

It is a doctrine current at the present day among 
canonists themselves, that whenever an ecclesiasti- 
cal law becomes injurious to society, it ceases to be 
religious, and for this very reason the temporal au- 
thority is bound to embarrass its execution. f 

* Appendix, note "E. 

t Eybel. Intr. in Jus. Ecel. Cap. 6. There have occurred an 
infinite number of examples of the exercise of this right, by 
Catholic sovereigns j who have sometimes vetoed bulls, some- 
times prohibited their execution, and sometimes, in fine, de- 
termined things contrary to ecclesiastical law. It will be 
sufficient merely to compare the decrees of the Council of 
Trent, which is accepted among us, with laws subsequently 
enacted in opposition to it. 

10 



110 CLERICAL CELIBACY 

Now it is certain, from the uninterrupted expe- 
rience of fifteen centuries, that the law enjoining 
celibacy has produced immorality in a class of 
citizens charged with instructing the public in 
morality and religion. For this cause their office, 
beside being useless, becomes prejudicial, when- 
ever the people find their conduct giving the lie to 
their doctrines and precepts, immorality in society 
being thus encouraged. Hence it follows, that it 
is a duty of the General Assembly to remove 
from these persons thus publicly employed, every 
circumstance which renders them useless or in- 
jurious to society. 

Let us suppose now that the legislature should 
revoke the impediment of clerical orders, but that 
the church, although recognising the validity of 
the marriage of priests, should still continue to 
depose and even excommunicate them, it is evi- 
dent that such a shock between the concessions 
of temporal power and the punishments inflicted 
by spiritual power would cause dissatisfaction, 
party strife, and the disturbance of public quiet. 

Therefore the General Assembly, in addition 
to revoking the impediment of clerical orders, 
not only could, but of right should, suspend the 
beneplacito to those papal laws which respect ce- 
libacy, that they may henceforth have no more 
force in the Empire of Brazil.* 

* In view of all these considerations, no other resource is 
left to the defenders of celibacy,* but that of perverting and 
falsely interpreting the authors quoted, and in want of proof, 
to seize the weapons of fanaticism and superstition, and 
brand as heretics, infidels, and libertines, those who shall de- 
clare in favor of my opinions. But I request the reader not 
to rely either on my quotations nor those of my adversaries 
* Appendix, Note F. 



CONCLUSION. Ill 

I have now redeemed ray promise, I have satis- 
fied my conscience, and have discharged a duty 
imposed upon me by the nation, in hope of pro- 
moting public happiness. I have fulfilled one of 
the most important obligations of the Christian 
minister, by exposing the inconveniences of a law 
which does so much to prejudice the interests of 
religion itself. 

Let others now say what they please. They 
may show that I have erred, but they can not, 
without calumny, impeach my good intentions. 

I will conclude this demonstration by a pro- 
fession of the doctrine of the Council of Gangres. 
" We admire virginity united to humility ; we ap- 
prove of continence practised with piety and grav- 
ity ; we respect the matrimonial union as honor- 
able ; and, in a word, we desire the church to 
practise what is taught in the sacred scriptures 
and apostolic traditions." 

but to examine with his own eyes the references made and the 
contexts of the authors. Then let him decide upon the sin- 
cerity and good faith of those with whom this question is con- 
tested. 



APPENDIX, 



NOTE A, p. 48. 
Dispensations, apostolic graces, &c. 

The Despertador, a daily paper of Rio de Ja- 
neiro, on the 14th of March, 1840, published the 
following article of correspondence, which is trans- 
lated to show into whose hands the power of grant- 
ing dispensations was held at so late a period of 
the 19th century, and how graciously it was used : — 

"Mr. Editor : — Nurtured in the bosom of the 
Catholic church, in which, by the grace of God, 
I hope to live and die, I have been hitherto unwil- 
ling to credit the general clamor which, for a long 
time, has been in universal circulation against the 
scandalous simony practised by the pontifical 
legate, resident at this court, in the concession of 
apostolic graces and dispensations. 

" Being employed, however, to solicit the dispen- 
sation of a matrimonial impediment, in favor of a 
Brazilian artist of low circumstances, I suffered 
the consequences of my incredulity, having the 
greatest difficulty to secure the brief of dispensa- 
tion for less than one hundred and fifty milreis ! 
(about $100). 

10* 



114 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

" I became astonished and amazed, on reflecting 
what riches must accrue to the Abbot Fabrini 
(then Charge oV Affaires, now Internuncio, of his 
holiness at the imperial court of Brazil), from the 
humiliation or the ignorance with which our pres- 
ent bishops renounce for his benefit the power 
confided to them by Jesus Christ, and which their 
predecessors have always used in its plenitude. 

" I ought not to pass over in silence the cautious- 
ness used by the chancellor, or whoever acts as 
secretary to the legation, in refusing to pass a 
receipt for the sum received, as is always practised 
in the ecclesiastical chambers, to furnish the agent 
with a voucher. Was it because such monies did 
not belong to the perquisites of any one, but were 
to be deposited in the coffers of charity for the 
aid of indigent Brazilians 1 In this case the poor 
have a prospect of dying with hunger ; meanwhile, 
this most illustrious delegate from Rome is growing 
rich and leading a sumptuous life. 

"An Ecclesiastic." 

Dispensations for the use of flesh during Lent, 
and on fast days, are still granted by the bishops, 
and by the wholesale ; it being generally under- 
stood that the Brazilians will not be bound by the 
rules of the Roman church in this particular. An 
instance occurred in 1 839, in which a six years' 
dispensation having terminated, the legislature of 
the province embraced by the diocese conde- 
scended to go through the formality of requesting 
his reverence the bishop to grant another similar 
one, which he accordingly did. 



APPENDIX. 115 



NOTE B, p. 57. 

" He is convicted of nefarious sacrilege every time he 
exercises a ministry polluted with such a crime. 5 ' 

What more humiliating picture of the depravity 
of man could possibly be drawn 1 The reader 
may be assured it is no fancy sketch. He will 
perceive that this essay was not designed to fur- 
nish statistics respecting clerical immorality, but 
that, nevertheless, this subject is continually ap- 
pealed to, as one well understood and of portentous 
signification. The author deemed it necessary to 
establish general principles ; particular cases of 
their exemplification were familiar to the minds of 
all. When- we regard the heinousness of this 
species of guilt in but a single case, it is sufficient 
to fill the mind with disgust and horror. What 
language, then, can portray the " abomination " 
of that moral " desolation " which must naturally 
result when the character here described is not 
uncommon ? 

It is not necessary for me to add anything to 
the assertions of the author, but I ought, perhaps, 
to illustrate the deep meaning of some of his 
expressions, which might otherwise be taken by 
some as vague and declamatory. Let it then be 
recollected that this sober production was espe- 
cially addressed to a body of legislators, including 
bishops and priests, beside the author, who, of 
course, would be able, as well as interested, to 
repel any false statements or conclusions respect- 
ing the class to which they belonged, and we may 
better estimate the force of many of the sweeping 
charges here made. 



116 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

E. g. p. 64. Is there any one who will pretend that 
continence is practised by the greater portion of the 
clergy ? 

Again, p. 63, among the advantages anticipated 
from admitting married men to orders are these : 

"2. The church would be enabled to be severe in her 
examination of persons voluntarily making vows of 
chastity, to know whether they actually are examples 
of the perfection they profess. 11 

" 4. The church would not then be obliged to close 
her eyes upon the concubinage of priests " &c. 

There was a notorious case, in which the vicar 
of a parish had the hardihood to apply to a legis- 
lative body for an especial act to legitimatize some 
eight or ten of his children, so that they might 
inherit his property ! I understood said act was 
granted. One of the most melancholy views of 
this subject is that which exhibits the effect of 
such conduct on the public mind. When practised 
by spiritual guides, men supposed to be in especial 
favor with Heaven, the most revolting sins, if not 
hallowed, become at least stripped of their enor- 
mity, and rendered worthy of extenuation in the 
eyes of the people. 



NOTE C, p. 98. 
"If the tribunal of fire had not closed up the mouths 
alike of the wise and the suffering — if popes had not 
assumed the right of imposing silence by means of their 
terrible anathemas — if a shameful espionage had not been 
made the duty of every Roman Catholic, who was obliged 
to denounce," &c. — " the law of celibacy would not have 
been perpetuated in the church, as a source of continual 
evil to society, individuals, and the church herself." 

What Roman Catholic among us dare say as 
much ? Perhaps in no country where Roman 



APPENDIX. 117 

Catholicism is the religion of the state, does there 
prevail more liberality of sentiment on many points 
connected with the doctrines and polity of that 
church, than in Brazil ; while it certainly exceeds 
that found among Catholics in several countries 
where that church is not predominant. The pres- 
ent translation is proof in point ; and also a prop- 
osition subsequently introduced by the author, 
Feijo, to the National Legislature to provide for 
the civilization and christianization of the Indian 
tribes of the interior of Brazil, by means of Mo- 
ravian missionaries. It may also be inferred, from 
the statement made by a very intelligent citizen of 
the country, viz : that " among the community at 
large there prevails no maimer of prejudice against 
reading the scriptures in the vulgar tongue." The 
writer is acquainted with many facts which cor- 
roborate this statement, so much in contrast with 
what is true of the great body of Catholics in the 
United States, and the countries from which they 
chiefly emigrated. 



NOTE D, p. 107. 

"We may omit to sanctify the days of St. Philip, 
St. Lawrence, 55 &c. 

Thirty-six days of the year, in addition to the 
Sabbaths, were formerly observed in Brazil as 
close holydays, by cessation from labor, public 
business, &c. For the reasons hinted at in the 
author's note, thirteen of them have now been 
abolished or dispensed, and thus become like other 
secular days, save that the precept requiring the 
faithful to hear mass in the morning is considered 



118 CLERICAL CELIBACY 

binding by the church, although very little attended 
to by the people. These days are familiarly 
denominated half-holydays — dias santos de meia 
car a, &c. The remark of the author respecting 
amusements, gaming, and indolence, is probably 
still quite too true, both of the close holy days and 
Sundays. 



NOTE F, p. 110. 
The defenders of clerical celibacy. 

We find reference, both in the preface and at 
the close of this work, to the opposition which the 
author knew full well its sentiments would call 
forth. The only individuals known to have at- 
tempted written answers to them, were the Arch- 
bishop of Bahia, and a Portuguese priest by the 
name of Luiz Gonsalves dos Santos. 

The latter published a work four or five times 
larger than the Demonstration, entitled, " Defence 
of Clerical Celibacy againt the separate report of 
Padre Feijo." It was met by a pamphlet of nine- 
teen pages, under the title of a " Reply to the 
nonsense, absurdities, impieties, and self-contra- 
dictions of the Padre L. G. dos Santos, in his 
pretended defence of clerical celibacy." A few 
paragraphs from this reply deserve to be preserved 
in this connexion. It is addressed in the form of 
a letter to his opponent, and commences thus : — 

"Reverend Sir: — Before replying to the non- 
sense and absurdities with which your work 
abounds, in attempting to defend clerical celibacy 
against all the principles of propriety, justice, and 



APPENDIX. 119 

morality, I wish to comply with your request to 
present the title by which I am ' constituted advo- 
cate in behalf of the clergy of Brazil, and author- 
ized to make a separate Report, embracing a 
project which no priest has requested me to ad- 
vance.' 

" Ask the Chamber of Deputies for the proper 
certificates, and you will ascertain what number of 
constituents sent me as a member of the General 
Assembly of Brazil. Then giving yourself the 
trouble to read the political constitution of the em- 
pire you will learn my rights and obligations to 
propose whatever I judge necessary to the hap- 
piness of its citizens. Among those citizens are 
all our numerous ecclesiastics, unless indeed we 
except the ultramontanists and papists who obey 
the Bishop of Rome as their lord and master, and 
think him authorized to give laws to sovereigns 
on subjects within their exclusive jurisdiction." 

" Good reason have the clergy to demand who 
made you their advocate, and authorized you to un- 
dertake the defence of celibacy. Are you igno- 
rant that the Committee of the House of Deputies 
on Ecclesiastical Affairs, has four members be- 
side myself, viz., two priests, one bishop, and one 
bachelor in canons ? These gentlemen, if they 
differ from my opinions, may at a proper time 
present theirs. 

" Does your pride or your pharisaical zeal carry 
you to such an extent as to desire to take the lead 
of them and instruct them ? Or if you could not 
be content to wait for their report, would it not 
have been better to transfer the task you have un- 
dertaken to some abler pen ; to some less intoler- 



120 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

ant spirit, who although without reason, might yet 
with dignity, manage arguments already stale, so 
as not to insult others, nor bring discredit upon 
religion itself, in the way you do. 

" It is a painful task to reply to nonsense and 
absurdities which are palpable to all who read and 
reflect on them : but since you have had the ad- 
dress to bring into use the weapons belonging to 
ignorance, fanaticism, and a perverse heart, show- 
ering in every page of your work the epithets, 
libertines, debauchees, impious, &c, upon those 
who are so happy as to see, hear, and know a lit- 
tle more than yourself, it becomes necessary for 
me to dismask you, in order that the unwary peo- 
ple may not be persuaded that your criminal ani- 
mosity to attack my opinion, results either from 
your sincere convictions or from the justice of the 
cause you assume to defend." 

It does not appear 'that the facts alleged by our 
author were at all questioned. The proposition 
of his opponent was as follows : " Clerical celib- 
acy is of apostolic institution, as the church al- 
ways has taught, as the councils have defined it, 
and as the popes have declared it, against inno- 
vators, Greek schismatics, heretics, libertines," 
&c. The discussion would, of course, lead into 
the endless mazes of fathers, traditions, and can- 
ons, and it is unnecessary to follow our author in 
his refutation of the arguments brought to sustain 
his propositions. It is sufficient to say, that after 
tracking out all his sophistical windings in the 
labyrinth of Roman authorities, he proceeds : — 

" Tell me then, sir, who is the wicked man and 
libertine, he who opposes the doctrines of the 



APPENDIX. 121 

apostles, the opinions of the holy fathers, and 
the practices of the church, or he who sustains 
them, and insists upon their restoration ? Who 
has most zeal for religion and charity for his 
brethren, he that desires to see the ministers of 
religion irreprehensible and free from a law which 
occasions immorality among them, brings them 
into discredit and disesteem, and finally conducts 
them to perdition ; or he who is stupidly satisfied 
with the formality of celibacy, insensible to the 
disgrace of his brethren, to the scandal heaped 
upon religion, to the uselessness of her ministers, 
and who, overflowing with fanatical zeal, vocifer- 
ates to this effect ? — 

' Our priests were ordained with the condition of 
their remaining continent ; whether they are or not, 
whether they can be or not, no matter ; let them suffer, 
let them strive in vain with their weakness ; since 
they have been imprudent and deceived themselves 
respecting the possibility of fulfilling their promise, 
they must at any rate die bachelors, be the conse- 
quences what they may /' 

" You say, moreover, that the Greek and protes- 
tant clergy live in profound misery on account of 
being married. Here is another perversion of 
truth. When an effect may be traced to several 
causes, it is necessary to discover the one which 
is real. But it ought to be known that the Greek 
protestant clergy are not poorer than the Roman, 
whom we have often seen begging. We can even 
affirm that we know some (among the latter) who 
might live in a very respectable style if they had 
lawful wives to keep them from the prodigalities 
11 



122 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

into which weakness and passion plunge them. 
What you ought to confess, even to our shame, is 
the morality of the protestant clergy. In fact, 
since they offer us the interesting example of so 
many moral virtues, when destitute of the grace 
of Christ, being out of the true church, and, per- 
haps, merely because matrimony is open to them, 
what prodigies of holiness ought we not to present 
if we had equal liberty and were assisted by the 
grace of God !" 

" Forgetful that your book constitutes a perfect 
libel, and that by the expressions with which you 
have so charitably honored your brethren you 
have declared yourself hostile to religion itself, 
since that commands you to love even your ene- 
mies, and not call them debauchees, epicures, wolves 
of Satan, way marks to hell, atheists, &c, &c. ; 
strange to tell, you all at once become inflamed 
with charity for a poor weak cardinal, whose 
name I concealed for decency's sake. In order 
to defend him, you do not hesitate to pronounce 
me a calumniator. Why ? Merely because I did 
not give my authority for the fact. Well, then, to 
satisfy your curiosity, I will give you the names 
of four authors for your consultation — Hovedin, 
Huntingdon, Paris, Wertin. 

" If you are afraid to read these, and continue 
obstinately to affirm that such conduct is impossi- 
ble or impracticable to so high a character, you 
may choose as his substitute either one among 
six or seven of their holinesses who have proved 
by their public example the necessity of abolish- 
ing the law requiring celibacy in the clergy. If 
you do not know the names of these popes I will 



APPENDIX. 123 

tell you what they are, and refer to authors that 
you may without scruple consult." 

" Must my report, then, like Pandora's box, be 
pent up for the sake of the country ? No, sir ; my 
exposition of this subject was designed to enlighten 
the public mind, and to promote the solid virtues of 
community by means of a measure which the 
people themselves desire, in view of the scandals 
to which they are witness ; at the same time it 
was designed to confound the ignorance and fanat- 
icism of those who meddle with subjects which 
they confessedly do not understand. Your book 
is the torch of discord, which has no other object 
than that of creating fanaticism, and disseminating 
in society the spirit of persecution. But you are 
deceived ; the world is already tired of seeing 
human blood spilled for the sake of enslaving 
consciences. 

" You may rage, become furious, and despair, 
but you will die confounded, and never see the 
fires of the holy office kindled, nor the thunders 
of the Vatican fulminated against one who respects 
the primacy of St. Peter, and the doctrines and 
morality of the Catholic religion. But I have 
said enough. The intelligent will form a correct 
judgment of the merits of the question, and the 
unlearned but sincere people will discover, from 
the insults and calumnies of your book, who it is 
that is like to bring down the maledictions of 
heaven upon Brazil. Whether it is myself, by 
endeavoring to lessen crime, to restore to humanity 
its rights, and to the clergy the esteem and consid- 
eration which they ought to possess ; or whether 
it is you, notwithstanding your boasted zeal for re- 



124 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

ligion, by cursing your neighbor, tolerating con- 
cubinage, and resting satisfied with the hypocrisy 
of some, the imposture of others, and the scandal 
of many !" 

The above extracts exhibit something of the 
character as well as the logic of our author's 
principal opponent. It will not be irrelevant to 
add that this same priest, Luiz Gonsalves dos San- 
tos, has perhaps equally distinguished himself in 
several recent publications against protestantism, 
aimed especially at the protestant missionaries 
resident at Rio de Janeiro. The principal work 
was dedicated to Fabrini, the pope's ambassador, 
of whom mention is made in Note A. It presents 
nearly 200 pages octavo, principally occupied in 
attempting to refute the well-known tract, " The 
Protestant Religion No Novelty" consisting barely 
of 4 pages, 12mo. ! 



NOTE E, p. 109. 

" It would be wrong to doubt that the General Assembly* 
of Brazil will not hesitate in the discharge of an important 
duty," &c. 

Notwithstanding the convincing arguments of 
our author, and his sanguine anticipations that the 
General Assembly would give heed to them, yet 
he was doomed to experience disappointment in 
the defeat of his measure. His subsequent elec- 
tion to the highest office within the gift of the 
nation, proves that it could have been through no 
want or loss of personal influence. 

It is not necessary, however, to assign reasons 
why this was the result of so bold and high- 



APPENDIX. 125 

handed an attempt at reform, especially when we 
reflect what an alarm would be excited by it, 
throughout the entire dominions of the pope, and 
what numberless influences the See of Rome 
could bring to bear upon a Catholic nation, just 
emerging into civil liberty, and still embarrassed 
with pending war. 

Clerical celibacy, with its wretched consequen- 
ces, as portrayed in this work, is still retained in 
Brazil, and it is not known that another attempt to 
abolish it will soon, if ever be made. Those who 
have exerted themselves unsuccessfully in behalf 
of reform seem to have become disheartened. The 
ex-regent himself is believed to experience this 
sentiment to no small degree. He once remarked 
to the writer, respecting his brethren of the priest- 
hood, that " they neither wish to introduce improve- 
ments themselves, nor will they suffer others to do 
so." 

It may not be uninteresting to the reader to 
have an authentic statement of the especial reason 
why the Roman church so pertinaciously adheres 
to the policy of requiring a formal celibacy in her 
clergy, in defiance of the claims of justice, hu- 
manity, and religion. 

The following is translated from a standard 
theological work, entitled, " Compendium of Mor- 
al Theology, for the use of the Seminary of 
Olinda, by the Padre Manoel do Monte Rode- 
rigues oV Araujo, Professor of Moral Theology in 
said Institution." 2 vols. Pernambuco, 1837. It 
is a scholium upon §1172, sec. VI., on Orders: 
" The marriage of priests would be- accompanied 
with very serious hazard of the peace and secu- 
11* 



126 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

rity of families. A Catholic priest would have 
many means of seducing, if he could hope to ar- 
rive at the end of seduction through a lawful mar- 
riage. Under the pretext of directing the con- 
science, he might corrupt and gain the heart, turn- 
ing to his private advantage the influence which 
his ministry gives him solely for the benefit of re- 
ligion. Were we to abolish the celibacy of priests, 
as a necessary consequence sacramental con- 
fession would be abolished also. This was the 
result in the reformed church, and for this object 
the same measure was proposed in France, about 
the time of the revolution." V. GregoireHistoire 
du Mariage des Pretres. Chap. 8. 

It is idle to argue this question. I will only 
remark what is well known in Brazil, viz., that 
this class of men, although prohibited lawful 
marriage, have so " many means of seduction," 
that a large proportion of the more respectable 
families peremptorily guard their daughters from 
any approach to the confessional. 

The following paragraph from the text of the 
same standard work, is subjoined as a specimen 
o£ the facts on the ground of which clerical celib- 
acy is advocated : — 

" 4th Objection. — The example of the reformed 
(protestant) clergy, who are married. Ans. — 
This is a miserable objection, and those who make 
it must either do so through ignorance or bad 
faith. 1st. Ignorantly, because there intervenes an 
immense distance between the Roman Catholic 
priesthood and the protestant ministry. The 
protestants have no sacrifice, no altar, and no 
priesthood, except that which is lay, ignoble, and 



APPENDIX. 127 

merely external, and consequently no reasons for 
continence, not even those which prevailed with 
the Levites at the time of their ministrations. 
Not so with Catholics, who offer and partake of 
the Immaculate Lamb, who have part in mysteries 
that would be tremendous even to angels. 

" Protestant pastors have their functions limited 
to preaching, presiding at public worship on the 
Sabbath, and celebrating the Supper a few times 
per year, nothing more ; while Roman Catholic 
pastors, beside preaching and presiding at public 
prayers longer and more frequently, have to go 
through with mass, and the service of the breviary, 
every day ; to attend on confessions, to administer 
the sacraments, and perform other functions 
enumerated in §1157. How, then, can they dis- 
charge, in addition to all these duties, those of a 
family ? 2d. Insincerely ; because it is known 
that the people have little or no respect for the 
reformed clergy ; their misery is frightful. Their 
daughters are those who populate places of pros- 
titution, and they themselves are not exempt from 
tne license of theatrical performances, and when 
one of them is introduced upon the stage it is to 
personate the fool or the drunkard !" 

A part of the above falsehoods are repeated in a 
pamphlet written by the Archbishop of Bahia, in 
an impotent effort to refute the arguments of 
Feijo. 

I intended to comment upon that production of 
the Primate of Brazil, against our author ; but hav- 
ing perused and reperused it, I find that the para- 
graph containing the miserable slanders just de- 
tailed, in order that they might refute themselves, 



128 CLERICAL CELIBACY. 

is the only one marked as worthy of especial 
notice. 

It is needless to multiply remarks upon a work 
having such a perfect unity of design, and so much 
point in its language, as that which I have now 
translated. I will therefore take leave of the 
reader by expressing to him the opinion, that what- 
ever effect the perusal of this book may have 
upon the minds of protestants, it is capable of ex- 
erting a powerful influence upon any Roman Cath- 
olic community in which it may be read. 

I therefore look forward with interest to the day 
when it shall be freely circulated in several impor- 
tant countries of Europe. 



THE END. 



SORIN&BALL, 

JVo. 311 JtMRKET STREET, 

Would invite the attention of the Ministry and 

all Biblical Students to their following 

list of 

NEW PUBLICATIONS AND NEW EDITIONS: 



SERMONS PREACHED UPON SEVERAL 
OCCASIONS, 

BY ROBERT SOUTH, SJ., 

Prebendary of Westminster, and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. 
4 vols. 8vo. 

This is the only complete edition of Dr. South; it 
includes the Posthumous Discourses; also an 
Analysis of each Sermon, and a copious Index of 
the entire work. 

Opinions of eminent Divines respecting the Sermons 
of Dr. South. 

44 Let those that please, be enraptured at the pretty, 
elegant sentences of Massillon or Bourdaloue; but give 
me the plain, nervous style of Dr. South. 

"John Wesley." 
44 No English divine has united the charms of intel- 
lect and finished style to sound theology more re- 
markably than Dr. South. 

44 Stephen H. Tyng, D. D.," 
Rector of the Church of the Epiphany \ PhilacL 
44 His Sermons form an 4 Oxford canon,' the sound of 
which I would exult to hear thundering from every Pro- 
testant bulwark. I know of no set of Sermons with 



which the public is now unfurnished, that I should so 
much rejoice in seeing widely circulated. 

"John Kennaday," 
Pastor of M. E. Church, Wilmington. 
"In originality of thought and illustration, in evan- 
gelical views, and fervour of piety, he is superior to 
either Barrow or Sherlock; and for strength and felicity 
of diction he has hardly any equal. Even the occasional 
quaintness of expression adds to the interest of the 
reader in the subject, and impresses more deeply the 
truths which are so earnestly and solemnly inculcated 
and illustrated in these Sermons; which might be fitly 
entitled, A. demonstration of the spiritual anatomy and 
physiology of the human heart, in its natural state, and 
as renewed by Divine Grace." — Christian Advocate 
and Journal. 

" He belongs to the number of ' old men eloquent' 
who have given their names to immortality, whose works 
< the noble ships of time' — as Bacon calls them, pass 
along age after age, richly freighted with stores of 
thought for successive generations, and all climes of the 
earth. You cannot read a page without being struck 
with some brilliant antithesis, some piercing sarcasm or 
pregnant comparison. Masculine in his vigour of intel- 
lect, grand in his range of conception, severely simple in 
his style, and thoroughly Saxon in his language, he is a 
noble model for the Christian orator." — Southern Chris- 
tian Advocate. 

" There is scarcely a religious author in our language 
who combines more excellencies than South. Wesley 
commends his style as a model. Those who have read 
the late article in our Review on Pulpit Eloquence, will 
recollect the estimate and example of his genius there 
given. His sentiments are ardently evangelical; his 
style is characterized by remarkable directness and 



energy, by striking imagery, and frequently by appro- 
priate and pungent satire." — Ziori *s Herald and Wes- 
ley an Journal, 

44 His sentences are sometimes texts, bis paragrapbs 
themes, his discourses, commentaries. His pages are 
rich with precious ore from the mine of truth, and spark- 
ling with brilliants from a well-stored and sanctified 
mind." — Richmond Christian Advocate. 

44 An eminent writer in the Tatler says, ' One does 
not know which to admire most in his writings, the 
strength of reason, force of style, or brightness of imagi- 
nation. In short, the best way to praise him is to quote 
him. In all his writings will be found the divine, the 
orator, the casuist, and the Christian." — New England 
Puritan. 

" The library of a clergyman cannot be complete 
without them, and now by the enterprise of the pub- 
lishers, they may supply themselves with an elegant edi- 
tion of a work which has hitherto been scarce in this 
country. At an early period of our ministry, we sup- 
plied ourselves with an English copy, at a high price, 
which is not comparable with this. The present edi- 
tion is increased in value by a copious Index." — The 
Presbyterian. 

44 No productions are more suitable than those to be 
placed in the hands of Christ's ministers, young or old, 
who would learn to add force and effect to their pulpit 
addresses." — Ladies' Repository. 

44 His Sermons are distinguished for originality of 
conception, for the boldness with which sin is rebuked 
and exposed, and for the strain of rich and glowing elo- 
quence in which the earnest desire of the preacher gives 
utterance to its longings for the salvation of men." — 
Protestant Banner. 



BURKITT'S NOTES ON THE NEW TES- 
TAMENT; second American edition: 2 vols. 
8vo. Beautifully printed on fine paper, and 
well bound. 

" For practical utility, it has no superior. Other ex- 
positions and commentaries have their several excel- 
lencies, but we know of no one containing more sound 
sense and piety than Burkitt." — Banner of the Cross. 

" We rejoice to see our old favourite in a dress and 
size that will render it available to our junior co-labour- 
ers, and that will place it in the families of our members 
generally. " — Pittsburgh Christian Advocate. 

" We have always found Burkitt a very useful com- 
mentator for practical reading. His illustrations of the 
text are usually brief, not critical, pervaded by a savour 
of piety, and suggestive of analyses which will prove 
useful to general readers and to ministers particularly." — 
The Presbyterian. 

" Few commentaries are better companions for the 
closet or fireside." — Zion's Herald and Wesley an Jour- 
nal. 

"Every minister, Calvinistic or Arminian, should, 
without fail, deposit it in his library. In rich invention, 
striking thought and forcible expression, who can excel 
Burkitt." — Ladies' Repository, Cin. 

" Burkitt's Notes were deservedly held in very high 
esteem by Mr. Wesley. As a plain, practical and forci- 
ble exposition of the New Testament, the work is, 
perhaps, as good a companion in Scripture reading as a 
disciple of Christ can desire, either for family or closet 
reference. As such I cheerfully recommend it. 

" J. Kennaday." 

" It simply gives a minute and practical exposition of 



5 

the Word of God; and while the simple can comprehend 
from its use the words of eternal truth in their beauty, it 
is at the same time calculated to make the wise wiser." 
— Christian Repository. 

" Those who look for edification in piety may be sa- 
tisfied in Burkitt. We may suggest to young preach- 
ers, that they will often find in these notes excellent 
hints for the construction of a Sermon.' 9 — Christian 
Advocate and Journal. 

" The text is given in a goodly-sized type and the 
notes follow each subject — sometimes a single note in 
smaller but plain type. These notes, like most other 
notes, exceed greatly in amount the solid bullion upon 
which they are issued; and like other notes will be dif- 
ferently estimated by persons who put an equal value on 
that which constitutes their bases." — U. S. Gazette. 



BRITISH SKETCHES, or SKETCHES OF 400 
SERMONS, Preached in various parts of the 
United Kingdom, and on the European Conti- 
nent. Famished by their respective authors. 4 
vols. 12rno. 

11 Great diversity of opinion prevails among divines as 
to the utility of Sketches of Sermons as aids to prepara- 
tion for the pulpit. But we are free to say, without 
pretending to settle the controversy, that this is the best 
work of the kind with which we are acquainted. The 
distribution of the subject is generally "judicious, and 
never too much attenuated. The suggestions under the 
different heads of the discourse are always leading ones, 
which the preacher is left to carry out and improve in 
his own way; and the subjects are chosen with a direct 
view to their importance in the great work of saving 



souls, rather than to gratify a polemical or speculative 
propensity. We may add, that the work may be found 
very edifying to other readers besides preachers. Many 
have not time to read a long discourse through at a sin- 
gle sitting, who would find it very useful to improve a 
few spare moments in perusing one of these compressed 
and evangelical Sermons." 

Christian Advocate and Journal. 
"The Sermons are sometimes argumentatiAe, but 
more generally practical. Their suggestive character 
will render them acceptable to young preachers and their 
general excellence will commend them to all." 

Christian Reflector, 



THOLUCK'S EXPOSITION OF ST. PAUL'S 
EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS, with Extracts 
from the Exegetical works of the Fathers and 
Reformers. Translated from the original by the 
Rev. Robert Menzies: 1 vol. 8vo. 

" Of the kind, it is the best Commentary that we 
know. " — Christian Instructor. 

44 Confessedly the ablest exposition of the Scriptures 
in any language." — Evangelical Magazine. 

" It is an invaluable work of a very remarkable man, 
and should be read and studied by all Biblical students. 
"Rev. J. P. Durbin, D. D." 

"Its genuine piety, and the sterling erudition dis- 
played in the exegesis, must commend it to all friends 
of sacred literature." — Protestant Banner. 

44 The work is a real accession to theological litera- 
ture in our language. We cordially recommend to all 
well read divines to give Tholuck on the Romans a tho- 
rouo-h readino-." — Western Christian Advocate. 



"It cannot fail to render most essential service to the 
theologian and critical reader of the Scripture." — North 
American, 

"This work opens to the Biblical student rich mines 
of thought, and will certainly find a place in the libraries 
of all." — Southern Chr. Advocate. 

" The work is richly entitled to a kind reception 
among ministers and Biblical students of every church in 
the country." — Christian Observer. 

1RENICUM, or PACIFICATOR; being a Reconciler 
as to Church Differences, by Bishop Stillingfleet. 
8vo. 

SMITH'S- LECTURES ON THE NATURE AND 
END OF THE SACRED OFFICE. 12mo. This 
work is highly recommended both by the clergy and 
press. 

OLD CHRISTIANITY AGAINST PAPAL NO- 
VELTIES, by Gideon Ouseley. 1 vol. 12mo. 

MEMOIR OF REV. WM. DAWSON, by James 

Everett. 1 vol. 12mo. 
DOMESTIC CIRCLE, by Rev. M. Sorin. 1 vol. 

12mo. 
RHODA, or THE EXCELLENCE OF CHARITY. 
CHRISTIAN TREASURE OPENED. 
AUNT MARY'S VISIT: Illustrated; a new Sunday 

School book. 
HERVEY'S MEDITATIONS: Illustrated. 
HEMANS'S POEMS: Illustrated with Steel Plate en- 

gravings. 

S. fy B. would also invite attention to their general 
as sortment of Ideological works. 






<b> 



